New Mackenzie highway would connect NWT: Premier

EDMONTON — The Northwest Territories will soon have the only public highway in North America to connect three different oceans.

The $840-million highway down the Mackenzie Valley links Hay River and the Arctic Ocean.

Premier Joe Handley told the Edmonton Journal that the 1,800-km project, which includes a 900-metre bridge across the river at Fort Providence — would further open up the resource-rich valley as well as better link the NWT with industries in Alaska, B.C., and Alberta.

Officials also expect the highway connects remote communities that depend on barge or air services for much of their supplies. A permanent bridge is critical in the region as increasingly warm winters mean ice bridge can’t be relied upon, Handley said.

The territory has only 2,000 kilometres of roads on 1.3 million square kilometres of land, and the lack of a reliable road system will discourage investment, Handley added.

The highway would follow almost the same route as the proposed $7.5 billion Mackenzie Valley pipeline that will carry Arctic natural gas from Inuvik to Edmonton.

— from the Edmonton Journal