Date:         Fri, 15 Mar 2013 08:39:31 -0700
Reply-To:     Alistair Bell <albell@SHAW.CA>

Remember when a bunch of listmembers made their epic trip up to Univik?
http://www.vanagon.com/journeys/inuvik/index.htm
This week it was announced that the road is going to be extended to reach Tuktoyaktuk (on the arctic ocean)
http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/media/news-nouvelles/2013/20130313yellowknife-eng.html
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Alistair, thanks for the link.

I do recall that 1996 Vanagon road trip to Inuvik on the Dempster (dumpster) highway.
One driver on that trip, Pete Clark, passed away last year.. 
The nickname dumpster is for the blown/ruined tires thrown into dumpsters along the route..:-)
Shale gravel is very hard on tires (the gravel is harvested locally along the route)

I worked out of Tuktoyaktuk back in 1977 before the road from Dawson City was built to Inuvik.
Fly to Inuvik then drive on an Ice road on the river to Tuk� (winter only). Oil and Gas Exploration.
The ice road is built each winter and costly for the short duration the road is passable.

The high cost of road building in this region is becoming more expensive as the climate warms.
The permafrost is receding deeper into the surface of the tundra. Enough to swallow your average Vanagon!
A gravel roadbed must be built on the permafrost. Also, must be thick enough to insulate the permafrost
from melting from the traffic the road carries. Often the gravel must be 20-30 feet thick.
Thus, the high cost..

Thanks again, for the link�

Pz

Tuktoyaktuk is anglicized Inuit roughly meaning: looks like/resembles a caribou