Winter 2011 CRYOFRONT Column

THEME: Project Delivery

CRYOFRONT – News and Views from the Far North

Project delivery in the Far North - then and now

By Ken Johnson, NTWWA Director

A century after what many consider to be the greatest ‘event’ in the far north, the Klondike Gold Rush, it is interesting to reflect on the delivery of projects during that era, and in our so-called modern age.

A Gold Rush era project that is fresh in my mind, is the Yukon Ditch, which was a $3 million (1909 dollars), 115 km, flume, ditch and pipeline project designed to deliver 5,000 miner’s inches of water (3500 litres per second) for hydraulic mining. The following excerpts from a site visit in 1909 by an engineer, indicate the challenges with project delivery at the time.

“The magnitude of the work accomplished by the engineers of the Yukon Gold Co. may

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be inferred from an enumeration of the tasks completed during the three seasons since the first surveys were finished – a power-plant of 2,000 HP, with 35 miles of main (power)line, 18 miles of branch, and 8 miles of secondary lines; 64 miles of main ditch, flume, and pipe. All this has been done 3,500 miles distant from manufacturing centres, with an inadequate supply of labour. Some of the machinery that arrived had been ordered 18 months previously. During the season of 1907, over 7,000 tons of material was received, and it was inevitable that some of the parts ordered in advance, for immediate operations, should be delayed in delivery despite every effort. A sufficient stock of parts

is carried, so as to obviate delays from slowness of transport. Maintenance of a proper commissariat for labourers required some generalship.

An effort was made to overcome the uncertain supply of local labour by importing 320 men from British Columbia. Of these, 20 deserted on the way.”

Dawson City and in fact much of the area ‘north of 60’ remains a project delivery challenge. This has been recognized by northern practitioners for over 25 years, and the cycle for project delivery is generally laid out in a 5 year ‘plan.’

The first year of a project is utilized for project planning. This is a necessary, but often time

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THEME: Project Delivery

consuming and expensive step to establish the required lines of communication between the various groups involved in the project, and to refine the project needs, and project resources.

The time and expenses are due to the isolation of project site, and the cultural differences of the project users. A simple visit to a project site may take a least a day or two of travel each way and cost thousands of dollars.

The second year of a project schedule is utilized for preliminary engineering and detailed design. These technical stages of the project may be characterized by the various technical activities with typical ‘southern’ engineering. However, the design criteria include careful consideration of cold temperatures, ice and snow, and how these are influenced by wind, darkness, and isolation.

The third and potentially fourth year of a project is utilized for project construction.

Construction of roads, pipelines, reservoirs, and lagoons is limited to a window between June and October. Construction before or after this period is certainly possible, but the cold temperatures often create problems, which may jeopardize the integrity of the project.

Projects in the coastal communities in the far north are faced with the problem that material and equipment supply cannot occur until late July, at the earliest. This is due to the fact that arctic waters are not free of ice until the mid-summer to allow the annual sealift to occur. Airlifting of materials and equipment is a last resort because it is extremely expensive.

Other projects, particularly in the western arctic, may have access to all-weather roads, or winter roads for material and equipment delivery. This allows for delivery during the winter months and for construction to begin as soon as temperatures permit.

The final year of the project schedule is post construction and warranty. This period of a project is not without its own particular problems, which may result from the ability of the contractor to complete deficiencies once his forces are demobilized, and the general ‘bugs’ that may have to be worked out of a newly completed project.

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A century ago project delivery in the far north relied solely on water transportation for the delivery of construction materials. The SS Klondike plied the waters of the Yukon River until the late 1950’s delivering construction materials 800 km downstream to Dawson City. She is now a Parks Canada Historic Site in Whitehorse.

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THEME: Project Delivery

IN THE NEXT ISSUE: Theme: SURFACE WATER MANAGEMENT In some respects, technology has not changed in 100 years because water transportation is still the only means of the construction material delivery in much of the north, as seen in the delivery of a package water treatment plant to the community of Taloyoak (Spence Bay), Nunavut. (Photo courtesy of BI Pure Water Inc.)

A significant portion of the Yukon Ditch was constructed using ‘steam’ shovels (see steam boiler in photo). These steam shovels were delivered in the vicinity of the project by sternwheelers and transported to the project site by horse drawn sleds (in many pieces of course). (Photo courtesy of Dawson City Museum.)

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Some fundamental aspects of project delivery in the far north have not changed in 100 years, although the technology applied in the project delivery has changed dramatically. Gone are the sternwheelers that plied the waters of the Yukon River to deliver construction materials and everything else to Dawson City and points in between. However, delivery by water, or ‘sealift’ remains a fundamental part of the project delivery process in the far north, particularly in Nunavut, where there are no roads providing access to the outside world.

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