page_title: Dempster Highway
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Dempster Highway / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Expedition led by Cpl. William Dempster in search of the Lost Patrol, Dawson City, Yukon Territory, 1911
context_page_description: The Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway in Canada that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta. The highway crosses the Peel River and the Mackenzie Rivers using a combination of seasonal ferry service and ice bridges. Year-round road access from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk opened in November 2017 with the completion of the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, creating the first all-weather road route, connecting to the Canadian road network with the Arctic Ocean, in Canada.
  The highway is named for the famous Yukon Mountie William Dempster, who earned renown for discovering the fate of The Lost Patrol.
context_section_description: In 1958, as oil and gas exploration were expanding in the Mackenzie Delta, the Canadian government decided to build a road from Dawson City in Yukon to Aklavik in the Northwest Territories. The road was intended as an overland, year-round supply link to southern Canada. Survey work began in 1958.
  With the August, 1959, discovery of oil in the Eagle Plains area, the government granted concessions to the oil industry to stimulate more exploration in the area. This provided more motivation for a road to transport equipment, infrastructure, and revenue to and from the sites. Construction of the road, then known as Yukon Territorial Road No. 11, began at Dawson City in January 1959.
   The northern terminus of the road was changed to the new town of Inuvik.  Due to high costs and ongoing funding disagreements between the federal and Yukon governments, progress was slow until 1961. Once the Eagle Plains oil discovery was found to have no commercial potential, construction stopped in 1962 after 115 km (71 mi) of roadbed had been built.
  Seasonal maintenance of the existing road continued but no further work was done. In 1964, the road was renamed the Dempster Highway, after petitions by Vancouver Yukoners Association and the Yukon Order of Pioneers. Construction resumed in 1970 as the Canadian government sought to assert sovereignty over their Arctic territories after the American discovery of oil and gas deposits at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in 1968. Work was further motivated by speculation that an oil pipeline might be built in the Mackenzie Valley.
  At the time of its construction, the highway was the most northerly major road project to date. Weather and daylight conditions presented challenges. In 1979, a work crew was trapped in a blizzard in the Richardson Mountains and was almost lost. Construction had to account for the permafrost; heat transfer from the highway to the ground had to be prevented so the permafrost would not melt. To address this, the road was built on top of a gravel berm, ranging from 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) up to 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in), to insulate the permafrost from the road above. Some construction was completed by the Canadian Forces; 3 Field Squadron, RCE from CFB Chilliwack built bridges over the Ogilvie River in 1971 and the Eagle River in 1977.
  The final section of road was completed in 1978, at a cost of $132 million. The highway was officially opened on August 18, 1979, at Flat Creek, Yukon.
caption: Expedition by Cpl. William Dempster in search of the Lost Patrol, Dawson City, Yukon Territory, 1911
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