(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Route Description
Yukon Highway 5 is 457 miles (736 km) long and runs from 25 miles (40 km) east
of Dawson City, Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories.
Much of Yukon Highway 5, the Dempster Highway, follows an old dog sled trail.
The highway is named after Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector William
Dempster, who as a young Constable, frequently ran the dog sled trail from
Dawson City, Yukon to Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories.
The Highway was officially opened on 18 August 1979, at Flat Creek, Yukon. It
was unveiled as a two-lane, gravel-surfaced, all-weather highway that ran 671
kilometres (417 miles) from the Klondike Highway near Dawson City to Fort
McPherson and Arctic Red River in the Northwest Territories. Ferries handle the
traffic at the Peel River crossing near Fort McPherson and the Arctic Red River
crossing near Tsiigehtchic. The Dempster adjoins a winter road that follows the
Mackenzie River south to Wrigley.
The design of the highway is unique, primarily due to the intense physical
conditions it is put through. The highway itself sits on top of a gravel berm to
insulate the permafrost in the soil underneath. The thickness of the gravel pad
ranges from 1.2 m (4 ft) up to 2.4 m (8 ft) in some places. Without the pad, the
permafrost would melt and the road would sink into the ground.
In addition to services in Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic and Inuvik, there is
one location with commercial services along the highway, at Eagle Plains. It is
an important fuel and food stop because of the great distance, and harbours
stranded travelers when the highway is closed due to extreme weather conditions.
(Until 1979, the highway was only open in summer.)
During the early 1990s, Northwestel erected microwave towers along the
highway to facilitate public safety with manual mobile telephone service and to
provide government agencies such as highway maintenance and the RCMP with
communications; the microwave project was opposed by some environmental
interests and those who preferred the pristine appearance of the route; one
suggestion to install fibre optics would not have enabled mobile communications;
since then, the route has become the terrestrial link to the exchanges in the
Mackenzie Delta region.
