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[Kniwt]

Nunatsiaq News, based in Iqaluit, reports that a cost-benefit study has been approved for a year-round road from Gillam, Manitoba, along the Hudson Bay coast to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.

Many believe it is needed to connect isolated northern communities to the south to ease the transportation of food, building materials and other goods, such as equipment used in mining, as shorter winters render winter roads almost useless.

Others fear a road will only increase human access to fragile wilderness areas.

[Roadgeek Adam]

At this point, this would make it easier to just extend Manitoba Provincial Road 290 from its terminus in the abandoned Sundance, Manitoba. Take that road from Road 280's fork just east of Gillam. The road could then go through each community and keep its one designation.

[agentsteel53]

when that road comes into service, I intend to drive it!

[Steve]

when that road comes into service, I intend to drive it!

By that time Nunavut will be my last province, so I'll join you.

[agentsteel53]

By that time Nunavut will be my last province, so I'll join you.

when did you go to/are you planning on going to NWT?  Or does that not count because it's a territory, not a province?

I've stepped into Nunavut.  As the boundary at James Bay, Quebec is the shoreline, any and all wading is into a new province.  But I still need to drive in.

[Bickendan]

Let me know when you're going. You'll need a navigator backseat driver human GPS hmm, I got nothin'.

[Steve]

NWT is part of my upcoming trip out to Victoria or Fairbanks, starting in Thunder Bay or Duluth.  (Still have to figure out where I'm allowed to bring a rental car).  I plan on doing a nice drive up to check out bridge construction up deep in NWT.

[Scott5114]

If you take it somewhere you "shouldn't", how would they know?

[agentsteel53]

(Still have to figure out where I'm allowed to bring a rental car)

blanket permission to drive to Canada should be available at any airport rental facility.  But check in advance.  Oddly, Canadian citizens are not allowed to rent a car and drive to Canada, but citizens of every other country are.  Weird rental car company policy.

[agentsteel53]

If you take it somewhere you "shouldn't", how would they know?

some of the shadier companies install GPSes into their rental cars.

even if not, in case you get into an accident, insurance companies will suddenly be extremely unwilling to pay out a claim if you were found in violation of your contract.

[corco]

even if not, in case you get into an accident, insurance companies will suddenly be extremely unwilling to pay out a claim if you were found in violation of your contract.

And if somebody runs into you and it's not your fault, your rental car company will have a cow if you're out of jurisdiction

[agentsteel53]

And if somebody runs into you and it's not your fault, your rental car company will have a cow if you're out of jurisdiction

yep.

I make runs to southern Utah and Oregon all the time with a car that is permitted only for California, Arizona, and Nevada.  I also drive on dirt roads.  Each time, I'm basically crossing my fingers!

[Steve]

In my case it's obvious from the start and end points.  If I start in either location and end in Fairbanks, now they have a rental car in Alaska.  That's usually not very desirable.  If I start in Duluth and end in Victoria, now they have an American rental car in Canada.

[agentsteel53]

In my case it's obvious from the start and end points.  If I start in either location and end in Fairbanks, now they have a rental car in Alaska.  That's usually not very desirable.  If I start in Duluth and end in Victoria, now they have an American rental car in Canada.

no no, I mean a Canadian citizen is not even allowed to bring the car into Canada and then return it to the US where it was originally rented from.

[corco]

In my case it's obvious from the start and end points.  If I start in either location and end in Fairbanks, now they have a rental car in Alaska.  That's usually not very desirable.  If I start in Duluth and end in Victoria, now they have an American rental car in Canada.

If you did Victoria, couldn't you just take the extra 5 hours or so to drive to Seatac? If you don't want to double back, you could take the Black Ball line to Port Angeles and then drive to the airport via the Kitsap Peninsula and whichever ferry you like

[J N Winkler]

no no, I mean a Canadian citizen is not even allowed to bring the car into Canada and then return it to the US where it was originally rented from.

What is the rationale for this policy?

[SP Cook]

no no, I mean a Canadian citizen is not even allowed to bring the car into Canada and then return it to the US where it was originally rented from.

Really?  Say a person lives in Vancouver and wants to visit his relatives in Windsor.  You are telling me they could not fly into Detroit and rent a car?

Is this to keep people living near the border from renting at (I assume) lower US rates?

[Kniwt]

The proposed road is the subject of an article in Tuesday's Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nunavut/have-road-will-travel-rural-nunavut-hopes-for-a-way-out/article1970759/

“Wherever this road goes we would hope to see a lower cost of living and the construction of a healthy society,” said Luis Manzo, director of lands for the Kivalliq Inuit Association, which advocates for Inuit in the region.

Current plans also allow for a hydro right-of-way parallel to the highway, perhaps allowing northern hamlets to kill their expensive diesel generators and plug into a hydro grid for the first time.

[Bickendan]

Sooner they build this, the sooner I'll get the routes up for clinching at CHM!

[Dr Frankenstein]

Sooner they build this, the sooner I'll get the routes up for clinching at CHM!

If only they could finish the provincial routes first. ;D

[Bickendan]

The first provincial set's done, I'm just waiting on the paperwork to be processed

[Kniwt]

Reviving a dead topic with an update that, although a route has been selected (map at the link), the road is "in a holding pattern" and wouldn't be done for "at least 20 years."

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavut-manitoba_road_in_a_holding_position_manitoba_official/

A preferred route has been selected for the road, said Richard Danis, director of transportation policy and service development for Manitoba, in his presentation at last week’s Kivalliq Trade Show in Rankin Inlet.

... “No new work is under way,” Danis said in his update of where progress on the road stands.

... The earliest time you’ll see that road built is at least 20 years from now, although Danis said there has been talk about building a winter road as an interim measure.

[oscar]

While this dead topic's alive again, I'll mention that there is an ice road (privately-operated, but apparently open to the general public with restrictions, including mandatory training), from Tibbitt Lake northeast of Yellowknife NT extending north into Nunavut.  This is one of the roads featured in "Ice Road Truckers".  For a map and some other info, see:

http://www.jvtcwinterroad.ca/jvwr/material%20combined/Y22100009-009_TCWR-Poster-updated-2006-info.pdf

See also this sign, at the road's entrance off NT 4, which I took in July of this year (the road status part of the sign is obviously a few months out of date):



Might be worth checking out, for those who are really, really impatient to drive into Nunavut, and don't mind driving in the cold and short days of Arctic winter.  (Not for me -- while Nunavut's on my bucket list, what I have in mind is a summer trip involving some really expensive plane tickets.)

[Steve]

Reviving a dead topic with an update that, although a route has been selected (map at the link), the road is "in a holding pattern" and wouldn't be done for "at least 20 years."

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavut-manitoba_road_in_a_holding_position_manitoba_official/

A preferred route has been selected for the road, said Richard Danis, director of transportation policy and service development for Manitoba, in his presentation at last week’s Kivalliq Trade Show in Rankin Inlet.

... “No new work is under way,” Danis said in his update of where progress on the road stands.

... The earliest time you’ll see that road built is at least 20 years from now, although Danis said there has been talk about building a winter road as an interim measure.

Hey Jake, I'm still up for it in 20 years if you are.

[vdeane]

While this dead topic's alive again, I'll mention that there is an ice road (privately-operated, but apparently open to the general public with restrictions, including mandatory training), from Tibbit Lake northeast of Yellowknife NT extending north into Nunavut.  This is one of the roads featured in "Ice Road Truckers".  For a map and some other info, see:

http://www.jvtcwinterroad.ca/jvwr/material%20combined/Y22100009-009_TCWR-Poster-updated-2006-info.pdf

See also this sign, at the road's entrance off NT 4, which I took in July of this year (the road status part of the sign is obviously a few months out of date):



Might be worth checking out, for those who are really, really impatient to drive into Nunavut, and don't mind driving in the cold and short days of Arctic winter.  (Not for me -- while Nunavut's on my bucket list, what I have in mind is a summer trip involving some really expensive plane tickets.)

That looks dangerous.  What if that sign is up when there's ice, but not enough to drive on?  A driver would have no way to know.