Winter road: Encyclopedia - Winter road

Winter road

Winter roads are temporary highways carved out of snow and ice. They facilitate transportation to and from communities without permanent roads, and are commonly seen in isolated regions in Canada's north.

Winter roads have a crucial role in enabling goods to be brought into communities without permanent road access. In many of these communities, air transportation is used at other times of the year to bring in goods including food and supplies, but this can be prohibitively costly for bulky goods such as building supplies and heavy equipment.

In general, these roads are built in areas where construction of year-round roads is expensive due to many river crossings, and the presence of boggy muskeg land. When frozen in winter, these obstacles are easier to cross.

Depending on the region, winter roads last anywhere from a few weeks to several months before they become impassable. The roads are normally the domain of large trucks, although cars are occasionally seen. Speeds on winter roads tend to be very low due to their rough condition.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Winter road", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki