http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/11/06/north-deh-cho-bridge.html
As the article notes, heavy trucks will be charged a toll (http://www.dehchobridge.info/docs/presentation_tolling.pptx) (Powerpoint presentation -- tolls charged northbound only, starting at $75), but passenger vehicles will get to cross for free.
$150 for a typical semi-truck and trailer sounds astoundingly expensive (though it does cover both directions). Then again, that location has always been an unsafe bottleneck, and $150 isn't that significant compared to things like fuel and maintenance costs on a truck shipment to the NWT.
Quote from: JREwing78 on November 10, 2012, 11:27:18 AM
$150 for a typical semi-truck and trailer sounds astoundingly expensive (though it does cover both directions). Then again, that location has always been an unsafe bottleneck, and $150 isn't that significant compared to things like fuel and maintenance costs on a truck shipment to the NWT.
I wouldn't call it an "unsafe bottleneck" -- ferry crossings are pretty frequent, when the ferry is running, and my wait time was less than 15 minutes each way when I was up there this summer. But for several weeks each spring, the winter ice road crossing disintegrates, and there's too much ice floating down the river to reopen the ferry. The customers of truck carriers crossing the river (including the folks up in Yellowknife, the territorial capital and what passes for a big city up there) will no longer have to stock up ahead of spring break-up, or rely on air freight to get by while waiting for ferry service to resume.
Quote from: oscar on November 10, 2012, 11:52:08 AM
Yellowknife, the territorial capital and what passes for a big city up there........................
Downtown Yellowknife:
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SoCJj03FJEc/UJ6fXLmSRII/AAAAAAAAJUQ/HpMCsAHyOU4/s800/3.jpg)
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I3Hq3og4wEg/UJ6fWNggD4I/AAAAAAAAJUQ/tdNTIFjjCN8/s800/2.jpg)
And the existing Ferry:
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-OwqIsgS1d3g/UJ6fWAjm-BI/AAAAAAAAJUQ/MLINJRRuJNU/s800/1.jpg)
Quote from: ghYHZ on November 10, 2012, 02:08:50 PM
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I3Hq3og4wEg/UJ6fWNggD4I/AAAAAAAAJUQ/tdNTIFjjCN8/s800/2.jpg)
I have no idea when that picture was taken, but it's funny, my father has a copy of the
Canadian Book of the Road, which was published in 1979, and it has almost an identical picture of Yellowknife to that one. Guess it hasn't changed much in 30+ years! (While I have not looked at the book in a few years, I remember the picture because I always liked to look at the "Driving North" section and to imagine the idea of maybe someday exploring those places.)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F5110oG8ya2L._SL500_AA300_.jpg&hash=9698c627565d0ed2429fee91f9dfb66546922f7c)
So are they going to charge that truck toll in the dead of winter when the ice roads are all in service?
That'd be a hell of a shunpike.
I remember Yellowknife as being a singularly gray and depressing place. unusual, as I found both the NWT wilderness, and the Deh Cho area which was busy with construction workers, to be quite full of life.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on November 12, 2012, 06:48:47 PM
So are they going to charge that truck toll in the dead of winter when the ice roads are all in service?
That'd be a hell of a shunpike.
There won't be a maintained ice road on or near NT 3 in the vicinity of the bridge, now that the bridge is opening. Other ice roads will remain in NT, but none will get you to Yellowknife from south of the 60th parallel. Ice river crossings, especially across a major river like the Mackenzie, need some maintenance (usually done by government road crews) to make sure they are thick and undamaged enough for safe travel. They're not a do-it-yourself kind of thing.
I was in Yellowknife in June and it seemed like a pretty pleasant small city. My first trip north of about 49 degrees 20 minutes latitude! Glad we got to cross on the Merv Hardie before it retires.
what will happen to the Merv Hardie? I'd imagine it is fit enough to be sold to another ferry service, of which Canada has plenty.
the ferry was manufactured in 1971, and when I rode it, it looked to be in excellent repair.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on November 14, 2012, 02:09:57 PM
what will happen to the Merv Hardie? I'd imagine it is fit enough to be sold to another ferry service, of which Canada has plenty.
the ferry was manufactured in 1971, and when I rode it, it looked to be in excellent repair.
The Merv Hardie will reportedly be re-deployed to one of the NT 1 crossings near Fort Simpson, to provide supplemental service on that crossing and perhaps also be available as a backup for the ferry vessels serving NT's other three crossings on or near the Mackenzie River. See http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/North/Trail%27s+End/ID/2238163434/ I think Fort Simpson is where all NT ferry vessels spend the winter, so there is already a dock to park the Merv Hardie until it resumes service.
Ultimately, a smaller and/or older vessel serving one of the other crossings could be retired, and replaced by the Merv Hardie. The much smaller Johnny Berens (serving the crossing between Fort Simpson and Wrigley) might be a logical candidate, especially as NT 1 is extended past Wrigley to Norman Wells and later Inuvik, which would increase traffic on the Johnny Berens crossing.
Quote from: ghYHZ on November 10, 2012, 02:08:50 PM
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I3Hq3og4wEg/UJ6fWNggD4I/AAAAAAAAJUQ/tdNTIFjjCN8/s800/2.jpg)
I wonder why there are no cities (or even roads) like Yellowknife (or Whitehorse) in far northern Ontario, Quebec and Labrador? I thought it was because the presence of the Canadian Shield in those provinces made the land less accessible and useable, but as seen in these pics, the shield exists in NT as well. I didn't think it went that far west.
Quote from: Transportfan on November 15, 2012, 10:44:32 PM
I wonder why there are no cities (or even roads) like Yellowknife (or Whitehorse) in far northern Ontario, Quebec and Labrador? I thought it was because the presence of the Canadian Shield in those provinces made the land less accessible and useable, but as seen in these pics, the shield exists in NT as well. I didn't think it went that far west.
There's significant oil, natural gas, gold, and diamonds in the Northwest Territories. Also, the western part of the Northwest Territories is not on the Canadian Shield.
Yellowknife is. You can see the two massive rocks in the pic.
Yes, Yellowknife is. But as the territory capitol and transportation center, it benefits economically from resources west of the shield.
A little off-topic sidenote, here a link about Yellowknife history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Yellowknife_history
Quote from: TransportfanI wonder why there are no cities (or even roads) like Yellowknife (or Whitehorse) in far northern Ontario, Quebec and Labrador? I thought it was because the presence of the Canadian Shield in those provinces made the land less accessible and useable, but as seen in these pics, the shield exists in NT as well. I didn't think it went that far west.
Yellowknife started as a gold mining town, but even today it only has 19,000 people and it's located on the western edge of the sheild. You can see that the Canadian Sheild covers a vast area:

Ontario's portion of the sheild is more developed with places like Thunder Bay (108,000), Sudbury (160,000), North Bay (54,000), and Timmins (43,000), while Quebec has places like Sagunay (144,000). At the end of the day, the sheild is unpopoulated for a reason - long, cold winters, short cool summers with lots of black flies and mosquitos, and land that can't accomidate agriculture.
I know there are cities in the shield in ON and QC, but these are actually not far north, as they'd be slightly in the States if moves further west in most cases. I meant there are no roads or cities at all in the far norths of these provinces. But kkt answered why YK and NT have them.
PS: The diagram is slightly wrong, as the shield doesn't touch Hudson Bay.
The bridge opened yesterday, as promised:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/11/30/north-deh-cho-bridge.html
One guy filmed the crossing of the Deh Cho bridge.
Quote from: Stephane Dumas on December 30, 2012, 10:10:51 AM
One guy filmed the crossing of the Deh Cho bridge.
Thanks for the link! Looks pretty steep in the video going down, when it's snowy and icy.
It must be interesting without the snow, to go from a dirt road, over an impressive bridge, then back to dirt road.
Quote from: deanej on December 31, 2012, 12:04:58 PM
It must be interesting without the snow, to go from a dirt road, over an impressive bridge, then back to dirt road.
No, with the opening of the bridge, NT 3 is now completely paved, from its south end at NT 1 to its north end at NT 4 in Yellowknife. NT 1 is also paved east of NT 3 to the Alberta border, so you can reach Yellowknife from Edmonton, etc. on paved highways.
the Yukon River crossing on the Dalton Highway is dirt on either side of an impressive wooden bridge.
Quote from: deanej on December 31, 2012, 12:04:58 PM
It must be interesting without the snow, to go from a dirt road, over an impressive bridge, then back to dirt road.
I was there in June for the Transit of Venus. The road is completely paved and better than lots of roads in the lower 48 states. (Except it's pretty rutted on the Yellowknife Highway east of about Edzo and west of the airport.)
Quote from: deanej on December 31, 2012, 12:04:58 PM
It must be interesting without the snow, to go from a dirt road, over an impressive bridge, then back to dirt road.
It's been paved for awhile now.
I drove to Yellowknife back in 2003 and only the last few KM's into town were under construction and remaining to be paved.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ML4VSvvFmPU/UOIdX2da6lI/AAAAAAAAJh8/B7FgiqH_7cM/s800/Yellowknife%2520140.jpg)
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-sqwnGjXtQ_8/UOIdZCo1TsI/AAAAAAAAJiE/llNoqv8wxYg/s800/Yellowknife%2520141.jpg)
Bridge at Edzo in Sept 2003.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-E-E8NJe3D88/UOIdW6GZTQI/AAAAAAAAJhs/HHBDGYlPDr8/s800/Yellowknife%2520138.jpg)
Quote from: oscar on November 14, 2012, 02:32:56 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on November 14, 2012, 02:09:57 PM
what will happen to the Merv Hardie? I'd imagine it is fit enough to be sold to another ferry service, of which Canada has plenty.
the ferry was manufactured in 1971, and when I rode it, it looked to be in excellent repair.
The Merv Hardie will reportedly be re-deployed to one of the NT 1 crossings near Fort Simpson, to provide supplemental service on that crossing and perhaps also be available as a backup for the ferry vessels serving NT's other three crossings on or near the Mackenzie River. See http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/North/Trail%27s+End/ID/2238163434/ I think Fort Simpson is where all NT ferry vessels spend the winter, so there is already a dock to park the Merv Hardie until it resumes service.
Ultimately, a smaller and/or older vessel serving one of the other crossings could be retired, and replaced by the Merv Hardie. The much smaller Johnny Berens (serving the crossing between Fort Simpson and Wrigley) might be a logical candidate, especially as NT 1 is extended past Wrigley to Norman Wells and later Inuvik, which would increase traffic on the Johnny Berens crossing.
Update: The Merv Hardie is now drydocked on the south shore of the Mackenzie River, next to the new bridge, and where the old ferry landing was. You can see it from the bridge and its approaches. According to a news report (http://www.nnsl.com/frames/newspapers/2014-04/apr7_14yk.html), the plan is to keep the vessel there as an emergency replacement for the bridge or one of the other Mackenzie River ferries, and perhaps ultimately to replace one of those other ferries.
The vessel apparently was built in Edmonton and sailed downriver from there to the Mackenzie River. It may be unable to cross ocean waters (especially the Arctic where the Mackenzie ends), so any alternate use of the Merv Hardie (other than as scrap or spare parts) may be limited to that river and others flowing into it.
I'll post later (not today), in a new thread, photos and other stuff from my visit to the Deh Cho Bridge earlier today.
Quote from: oscar on July 09, 2015, 10:04:50 PM
The vessel apparently was built in Edmonton and sailed downriver from there to the Mackenzie River. It may be unable to cross ocean waters (especially the Arctic where the Mackenzie ends), so any alternate use of the Merv Hardie (other than as scrap or spare parts) may be limited to that river and others flowing into it.
Ehm... Edmonton is on the Saskatchewan river system, which flows into Lake Winnipeg and subsequently into Hudson Bay. How would it get from there to the Mackenzie River without going through the arctic ocean?
Quote from: Duke87 on July 21, 2015, 12:05:21 AM
Quote from: oscar on July 09, 2015, 10:04:50 PM
The vessel apparently was built in Edmonton and sailed downriver from there to the Mackenzie River. It may be unable to cross ocean waters (especially the Arctic where the Mackenzie ends), so any alternate use of the Merv Hardie (other than as scrap or spare parts) may be limited to that river and others flowing into it.
Ehm... Edmonton is on the Saskatchewan river system, which flows into Lake Winnipeg and subsequently into Hudson Bay. How would it get from there to the Mackenzie River without going through the arctic ocean?
Yeah, and also there are some major (though portage-able) rapids on the main river flowing into the Mackenzie River drainage basin from northern Alberta. So that's a puzzle I'll try to check out later, perhaps with the NWT territorial transportation department.
That issue also applies to a mosque in Inuvik on the Mackenzie River -- AFAIK northernmost in North America, and only one on that continent north of the Arctic Circle -- reportedly built in Manitoba and floated up to Inuvik.
Perhaps it's small enough that it went by rail to the Great Slave Lake and then lived on the Mackenzie since then?
Quote from: kkt on July 21, 2015, 11:03:27 AM
Perhaps it's small enough that it went by rail to the Great Slave Lake and then lived on the Mackenzie since then?
I think it's a little big to go by rail in one piece. I don't remember if the crossings on the line to Hay River NT have enough horizontal clearance, including the rail connections to that line from Edmonton. But maybe it was partially disassembled, then reassembled in Hay River.