Project delivery in the Arctic - a brief history

SPECIAL FOCUS: COLD CLIMATES AND REMOTE LOCATIONS

Project delivery in the Arctic hasn’t changed much since the Klondike Gold Rush era

By Ken Johnson

M

ore than a century after what many consider to be the greatest “event” in the history of the Arctic, the Klondike Gold Rush, it is interesting to compare the delivery of projects during that era to today.

A Gold Rush era project of particular significance was the Yukon Ditch. It was a $3 million (1909 dollars), 115-kilometre, flume, ditch and pipeline project designed to deliver 5,000 miner’s inches of water (3,500 litres per second) for hydraulic mining in the Dawson City area.

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 Company may be inferred from an enumeration of the tasks completed during the three seasons since the first surveys were finished. These include 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 Arctic remains a project delivery challenge. This was recognized by Arctic engi1 | February 2021

A significant portion of the Yukon Ditch was constructed using “steam shovels.” 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

neers in the 1980s, and led to the development of a five-year project delivery cycle.

The first year of the project delivery cycle is utilized for project planning.

This is a necessary, but often time-consuming and expensive step to establish the required lines of communication between the various stakeholders in the project, and to refine the project needs, and the project resources.

Time and expenses are due to the isolation of a project site, and the time needed to invest in understanding the cultural differences and needs of the end user. A simple visit to a project site may take a day or two of travel each way and cost thousands of dollars in airfare.

The consultation with the end user is an essential part of the first year because neglecting this segment of the work may delay the project delivery, and lessen the overall success of the project.

The second year of a project schedule is utilized for preliminary engineer-

ing and detailed design. These technical stages of the project may be characterized by the various technical activities with typical “southern” engineering such as geotechnical engineering, topographical surveys and background studies in advance of the design.

However, these activities require special consideration of the inherent conditions of the Arctic such as permafrost.

The design criteria that emerge from preliminary engineering include: careful consideration of cold temperatures, ice and snow, and how these are influenced by wind, darkness, and isolation.

For example, the efficiency of outdoor winter construction in the Arctic may be reduced by 50%, due to the cold, and another 50% due to the darkness. In total, this means that winter construction may advance at about 25% of the summer working efficiency.

The third and potentially fourth year of a project is utilized for project con-

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

(Left) In some respects, technology has not changed in 100 years because water transportation is still the only means of construction material delivery in much of the Arctic, as seen in the delivery of a package water treatment plant by barge, from a larger ship, to the community of Taloyoak (Spence Bay), Nunavut. Photo courtesy of BI Pure Water Inc. (Right) Winter construction in the Arctic must contend with cold and darkness which significantly reduces the efficiency of construction. The replacement of a water line in the City of Iqaluit uses the modern materials of high-density polyethylene pipe with urethane foam insulation to endure the cold and protect the water line from freezing, but machines are still required for the installation.

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

Projects in Arctic coastal commuwww.esemag.com @ESEMAG

nities are faced with the problem that material and equipment supply cannot occur until late July, at the earliest. This is because 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, and very limited to the size of material and equipment that fit into the

aircraft. An emerging challenge for the Arctic sealift is the climate change phenomenon of polar ice pack deterioration.

This is creating large broken ice fields that can be a hazard to sealift navigation.

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. However, climate change is also creating a challenge for winters roads with shorter periods of safe ice road activity emerging in the past decade.

The final year of the project schedule is post construction and warranty. This period of a project is not without its own particular problems. These can include the ability of the contractor to complete deficiencies once their forces are demobilized, and general “bugs” that may have to be worked out of a newly completed project.

Another critical element to the final year is the operation and maintenance documentation and training for the users of the project. Arctic engineers in the past have not recognized that a completed project is a legacy that the community must operate and maintain for decades into the future.

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 Arctic, particularly in Nunavut, where there are no roads providing access to the outside world.

Ken Johnson is with EXP. Email: ken.johnson@exp.com

February 2021 | 2