If you’re looking to drive south from Yellowknife, your only option is Highway 3.
It is, quite literally, the only road out of town.
It was completed in 1960 and mercifully ended the community’s long isolation by connecting it to the outside world. No longer was the city utterly reliant on planes and barges.
If it is a mean road now, it was certainly meaner then.
It took John and Janet Anderson, the first people to drive to Yellowknife from Edmonton, six gruelling days of repairing punctured tires and fording creeks to make the trip, according to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.
Over decades of work and tens of millions of dollars spent, the highway was finally completely paved in 2006. During that time workers unkinked twists and turns left over from the original construction, when the builders dealt with swamps and other obstacles by curving the road around them.
Now the drive to Yellowknife from Edmonton is a relatively painless 16-hour jaunt.
But be warned. Beneath its sheen of gentrifying pavement, it is still a mean and wild road.
Last week, we spoke to a number of sources who said driving on Highway 3 can be a challenge as it is full of major potholes, dips and gravelly spots and not all of these hazards are indicated by signage. One even went so far as to call the surface of Highway 3 a “disaster.”
We reported on the terrible accident that befell on motorcyclists with the Victory Bikers from High River, Alta., who were travelling to the territory to celebrate the summer solstice when one of their members hit a loose patch of gravel somewhere between Fort Providence and Behchoko.
The rider lost control of their machine and fell, resulting in serious injuries. Thankfully she was riding with companions who contacted an ambulance and got her to hospital. She is expected to recover.
We spoke to a number of residents who rightly pointed out that better signage could have prevented this accident.
A loose gravely surface is highly slippery and darn right dangerous, especially for vehicles driving at high speeds.
It goes without saying that the Department of Transportation should do everything possible to step up its game when it comes to making the highway as safe as possible.
If there are any major highway obstacles or particularly dangerous patches of gravel, every effort should be made to alert drivers with adequate signage. The city needs the highway. It is critical for the movement of essential supplies and people and if the territorial government wants to grow the tourism industry, it will need highways to move people around safely and reliably.
But it should be pointed out that “disaster” is a relative term.
The territory has come a long way from the bad old days of sawing branches to cross creeks and seas of mud.
Highway building in the North is a dicey and expensive undertaking. Take the brand new 137-kilometre, $300-million all-weather road to Tuktoyaktuk, which was closed for most of May due to muddy conditions.
So even now, the usual precautions should be in place when you're driving on NWT highways and that means survival gear, extra food, blankets, a shovel and all season tires.
The GNWT is planning to invest $46.4 million in infrastructure projects this fiscal year, including chip-sealing 84 kilometres of Highway 3. Realistically though, there is a zero per cent chance the GNWT can make NWT highways 100 per cent safe.
Stretches of the highway are built on permafrost and parts of the Northwest Territories are warming up to four times faster than global averages, according to a GNWT climate change report. This is definitely going to impact the roads.
As the climate warms, stretches of permafrost will no longer be permanent and when and if they melt, they will leave a pockmarked road that slumps and curves like a roller coaster.
So drivers, take heed, don't speed and watch yourselves out there. This is not the 401 out of Toronto.