Ice road on the rocks?

YELLOWKNIFE — Global warming is supposedly melting away the Arctic’s ice roads. But fossil fuels can’t be blamed if this particular ice route in the N.W. T. is soon history.

There’s a move afoot to replace the ice road that links the central Northwest Territorial communities of Behchoto, Gameti, Whati and Wekweeti.

The NWT government is warming to the idea of replacing the road with a land route and has asked locals to help choose a new path for the artery.

According to the CBC, the current ice road is open for about three months a year. About 1,000 people rely on it for supplies.

“People have been talking about it for a long, long time. They want to have an all-weather road,” Gameti Chief Henry Gon told CBC News.

N.W.T. officials say they want to move the existing winter road route onto solid ground. That will make the ice-road season a month or two longer each year until an all-weather road can be built.

Over the summer, department staff conducted engineering and environmental studies to figure out what their options are. Those options were shown to Whati residents earlier this week.

“[We’re] looking at things like river crossings and creeks and high water marks and all those types of things that affect where we might put a route one day,” said Michael Conway, North Slave’s regional superintendent.

Moving the winter road could take three to five years.