Mackenzie Highway

Rapids in the Trout River

Mackenzie Highway

The Mackenzie Highway is a highway in the Canadian Alberta and the Northwest Territories . It begins on Alberta Highway 2 at Mile Zero in Grimshaw, Alberta . From kilometer 5, the road is named Alberta Highway 35 along its entire length to the border with the Northwest Territories and then becomes known as Northwest Territories Highway 1 .

Construction originally began in 1938. However, due to World War II , construction was discontinued and resumed in the late 1940s and extended to Hay River .

In 1960 the highway was expanded. About 38 km south of Hay River, in Enterprise , a 38 km long stretch of highway was set up in a northeastern direction. The course of this stretch of road leads via Fort Providence and Behchokò to the capital of the Northwest Territories, to Yellowknife . Much of it is now known as the Northwest Territories Highway 3 or the Yellowknife Highway . This section between Hay River and Enterprise is part of the Hay River Highway (Highway 2).

Around 1970 the highway was extended to Fort Simpson and in 1971, when the section to Fort Simpson opened, work began to extend the road to Wrigley . However, the work was stopped. The road begins 3.5 km from the island on which "Downtown" Fort Simpson is located. It was completed in 1994 and also includes the N'dulee ferry and several ice bridges .

East of Fort Simpson Airport , the road crosses the Liard River by ferry in summer and by ice bridge in winter.

expansion

An extension of the highway from Wrigley to the Dempster Highway was discussed as early as 1958. A connection to the north is currently only possible in winter with the help of ice roads and bridges. However, the government commissioned several studies with the aim of establishing a solid road connection for the warm months as well. This project is currently being implemented without a specific deadline. 34 bridges have already been built and there are only six rivers left over which more bridges have to be built.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Historical Timeline of the Northwest Territories. Retrieved January 17, 2013 . 
2. ^ Mackenzie Valley Highway to Tuktoyaktuk. (No longer available online.) Northwest Territories Transportation, archived from the original on December 26, 2010 ; accessed on January 17, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.