[Photos] Historic Highway to Canada's Arctic Joined

The north and south construction spreads of Canada’s Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway have now been joined to create the first public highway to Canada's Arctic coast. 

This key piece of transportation infrastructure is now concluding its third winter of construction. Once complete, it is expected to facilitate economic growth in the Beaufort Delta region by providing all-weather highway access to Tuktoyaktuk, which is currently served only by ice road, barge and air. 

The highway is anticipated to increase opportunities for business development, reduce the cost of accessing onshore and offshore oil and gas opportunities and to strengthen Canada's sovereignty in the North.

The scheduled opening to traffic is in the fall of 2017. The new 140-kilometer (87 mile) highway will be the northern-most section of the envisioned Mackenzie Valley Highway that will connect Canada from coast-to-coast-to-coast. 

The $299 million Inuvik Tuktoyaktuk Highway is a collaborative project of the Government of Canada, the Government of the Northwest Territories, the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, and the Town of Inuvik. The Government of Canada is contributing $200 million towards this project. The Government of the Northwest Territories is contributing $99 million.