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COORDINATION AND COMPLETION OF MULTI-YEAR GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION IN THE CANADIAN ARCTIC: CHALLENGES AND LESSONS LEARNED
Session: Permafrost Considerations in Design / Pergélisol et conception en milieu nordique
Yves Cormier, Stantec (Canada)
Olivier Piraux, Stantec (Canada)
The Northwest Territories Department of Transportation (NWTDOT) is constructing an all season highway connecting the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk with the Town of Inuvik and the Dempster highway. The Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) consists of over 140 km of two lane, gravel surfaced highway requiring close to 10 million m3 of material. The execution of the borrow investigation program required the development of risk management strategies with an emphasis on project team roles focusing on the logistical aspects and the associated challenges while maintaining technical oversight and quality. A significant effort was spent on planning the program, including the identification of areas deemed most probable to contain suitable borrow. This included a significant effort and cooperation between geotechnical and terrain staff using new technologies to complete an initial desktop study of the proposed alignment area in order to identify and prioritize areas of interest. Close to 700 boreholes were drilled in less than 80 days spread over three winter seasons. This paper present the overall approach, planning, and execution strategy utilized to achieve the overall objective, which was to locate the required volume of borrow material along the proposed highway alignment prior to the start of construction.
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