The Dempster Highway is the only road connection to the western Arctic. Now connected with the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway, it is part of the infrastructure linking southern Canada with the Arctic Ocean. Extensive reconstruction of the Dempster Highway has been completed on the NWT side of the territorial border in response to degradation of the road surface and embankment. Recognizing the need to ensure year-round availability of the Dempster Highway in the context of increasing traffic and a changing climate, Yukon Government Department of Highways and Public Works (HPW) has initiated a project to create a functional plan that specifically considers contributions of climate change to geohazards along the highway. Research and analysis required to assess climate and geohazard vulnerability have been carried out by the Northern Climate ExChange, part of the Yukon Research Centre at Yukon College, feeding into the functional planning process carried out by an engineering consultant. This report is a summary of climate- and geohazard-related vulnerabilities for the highway corridor.
Heat transfer into the ground at highway culvert locations can lead to the thawing of permafrost, damaging infrastructure, shortening its lifespan, and increasing maintenance costs. The Dempster Highway in the northern Yukon experiences multiple culvert failures attributed to permafrost thaw. The Yukon Government Department of Highways and Public Works wants to further understand the problem and test potential mitigation methods. A necessary culvert replacement at km 381 provided the opportunity to trial the use of a layer of rigid foam insulation under the new culvert, with the intention of providing an insulating layer between the culvert and the permafrost underneath. Permafrost researchers at the Northern Climate ExChange (NCE) developed an approach to monitor the effectiveness of the insulating layer using a combination of temperature and electrical resistivity monitoring.
