The Ice Road - Dangerously Rewarding.
A lot of people will never encounter an ice road in their lifetime. I don’t mean a motorway that is crusted with frost from a chilly night, I am talking about the miles of ice that has been made for the last 75 years to join remote mines to trucking towns. Trucks use the ice roads to go to communities that do not have permanent road access to transport tonnes of goods.
They are seen in the North West Territories of Canada, just south of the Artic Circle and also in some parts of Europe like Estonia, Finland and Norway.
One of the biggest ice roads to date is 350 miles long which joins Yellowknife to the North West Territories, or as it is sometimes known ‘the doorstep of the Artic Circle.’ The road is open for just 60 days a year and will carry across up to 100 million pounds worth of goods.
But first the road has to be made. After a short road, there are mainly lakes that cover the area between Yellowknife and the NWT. Ice road constructors have to work 24 hours a day before the ice road opens to create a surface of ice that is 28 inches thick; it has to be thick enough to carry the weight of many 18-wheeler trucks. 85% of the Yellowknife road is frozen ice so a lot of work goes into making it as safe as they possibly can.
The first step to creating the ice road is sending out a Hagglands, a personnel carrier that is used by the Swedish army. The reason it is first out onto the unstable frozen lakes is because it floats and is a light machine, it also measures the thickness of the ice with a ground penetrating radar. Once it is 16 inches thick then it is ready to begin the process of creating the real road. After the Haaglands measures the thickness, a snowplough follows to push away the excess snow.
Then the ice road construction team begin work. First the land crossing or the ‘portage’ has to be cleared of any snow which would block the road and has water sprayed over the whole of the road so that there is a thicker layer for the trucks to cross.
Now the lake has a thicker layer of ice from where it was ploughed earlier. Because the snow is gone, it means the ice is directly exposed to the -60 degree Fahrenheit air. Then frigid water from the lake below is sprayed and mixed with the snow across the lake to create a slush, which then sets. They call it the quick set concrete of the North, which then adds another extra inch of thick ice. They then flood the road with more frigid water to create another valuable inch of thickness.
The road may only last as long as it takes to build, but it cost $10 million to make for the 60 days it is used for each year. Although this is cheap change compared to the where the trucks are delivering the goods to.
At the end of the ice road, or at various stop points there are mines. First they found gold under the ice, and now there is another form of ice, which is what the ice road is mainly used for - the diamond mine worth an estimated $40 billion. The mines need more supplies each year, as they are in the remotest part of the world. During the warmer seasons, they get some supplies via the air but the heavy loads are saved each year for the ice roads.
The mines have things like fuel and tanks delivered, 48 million litres of fuel to be exact which lasts them a majority of the year.
What comes with making these ice roads though, are the dangers. Many accidents have happened over the last 75 years of the Yellowknife ice road, mostly with the snowploughs, as they are the first heavy vehicles to cross the lakes. Dozens of men have fallen through the ice while ploughing and sunk down to the bottom 250 feet below the ice. Although the danger does not only occur with the snowploughs, an even greater danger is risked each year when the ice road truckers come to town.
A lot of the truckers that feature on the roads have an experience of trucking of some kind. Although some do start their career from scratch and become an ice road trucker just to see the ice roads. But some do not always make it across the roads first time ice truckers sometimes get to the pick up lot, park their trucks and then chicken out. Fear, panic or the possibility of never coming back sets aside the rookies from the real ice road truckers.
The men work for 60 days a year, the season of the ice road and can earn a year’s wages within 8 to 9 weeks delivering and picking up loads between mines on the ice roads destinations. The biggest downside for their families left back at home is not seeing them until spring - or the never seeing them again but it is the risk they take for a remotely comfortable life the rest of the year.
It’s tough work though. The trucker’s work long hours delivering loads, sometimes they are awake for 40 hours from doing two loads up and down the 350 or so miles of ice road. They also have to have a higher concentration than the normal driver, at night there are whiteouts, which is where the wind picks up on the ice road and blows ice and snow across, making it incredibly hard even for the most experienced truck driver to see on the roads. They also have to pay special attention to their trucks, if even a slight amount of moisture is in the air lines then the brakes freeze up, it takes a long while for help to come along and fix the problem so the men not only have to be good at driving but they have to know their truck inside and out.
Before the trucks go out on any mission across the ice roads, they first have to be winterised. The drivers take their trucks to the garage in Yellowknife where the mechanic then begins the process of preparing the truck for the winter climates. He checks for any moisture in the lines as this would be the first thing to ruin a truck, if the brakes go in the middle of the ice road, the other truckers then get held up while the driver waits for help.
Then alcohol evaporators are put onto every truck where the lines connect to stop the moisture forming into ice. The alcohol evaporators pump methyl hydrate alcohol through the lines, which then melts the ice. 12 gallons of heavy-duty anti-freeze top off the radiator. Then a heavy winter coat is put over the bottom of the engine and over the front of the radiator to keep in the heat and keep out any of the water.
The drivers also have to be prepared to fix on their loads while driving. Sometimes a heavy load can become unhooked, causing for it to shift, which means that the driver has to get out of his truck in the coldest of weathers to readjust the straps. Losing a load can cost thousand of dollars for both the company and for the trucker.
What comes with earning a large amount of money within 60 days though is the high danger of the job. The trucks are supposed to stick to 15 mph on the roads, if they go any faster the water beneath will start a wave, which then creates the ripple that comes through the ice either causing the current truck to go through the ice or the following one to go through the break. The danger of speeding is ever apparent in the ice roads, when the authorities check on the roads a week or so into the ice run, they usually come across a few breaks in the ice from speeding trucks. That is one of the biggest dangers aside from coming across a weak part of ice and sinking straight to the bottom.
Although this all may seem like an exceptionally dangerous job, which it is, it doesn’t come without the rewards. The truckers themselves have a competition to see who can get the most loads thus earning the most money, it is probably the only reason they do ice road trucking aside from the thrill of going across 28 inch thick ice roads.
Plus the view they get during the day is incredible and way above what the usual average trucker would get on a long haul delivery.