“Experience is key to getting the job
done in these conditions, which can
change quickly.”
For example, he points to Highway
280, a 290-kilometre stretch of roadway
that starts north of Thompson, Man. and
finishes in Gillam, Man. The surface is
gravel and dirt with a winding route that
follows rivers and lakes through shield
and boreal forest.
“The highway itself is in rough shape
to begin with,” said Kohaykewych. “If it
rains, we sometimes have to wait until
conditions improve. Driving a heavy load
on this surface creates ruts and makes
the road impassible. In the winter, any
warming or light rain makes ice crossings
very time consuming. We have to
bring all the tools, like a heavy loader,
to pull and free stuck truck tires. At -50
degrees Celsius, we can see challenges
like broken leaf springs and other mechanical problems
occur. Our drivers have to be jacks-of-all-trades to work with
the unexpected.”
Recently, Polar Industries moved a considerable amount
of pipe to the Manitoba Hydro generating site in Gillam.
Kohaykewych says that they were able to ship the pipe to
Gillam via rail and offload to waiting trucks for the run to
the site.
“This method saved hundreds of thousands of dollars
over trucking the pipe from the tide water shipping terminal
in Vancouver. We were able to use just four trucks over
a one-month period to transport 80 rail cars of pipe to
Keewatinohk,” he said, adding that the pipe was 60 feet long
and required a skilled and seasoned operator to get them off
the cars and onto the truck beds in just the right configurations
for the challenging ride to the site – about 100 km
northeast of Gillam.
On another job, Polar moved a 125,000-pound crane over
the ice road to Pikangikum, a remote First Nations community
near the Manitoba/Ontario border north of Red Lake. He
says they had to close the road to others while they used it to
ensure load levels over the ice.
“There is always a huge amount of prep work that has
to take place – whether it’s hauling over ice or on a frozen
winter road over bogs and muskeg,” said Kohaykewych. “For
example, we might have to send a grader ahead of the truck
to improve the surface or use other pieces of equipment to
pull the trucks free if they get stuck. We like to move at night
when its coldest.” Despite the preparations, drivers still have
to deal with pressure ridges and cracks on the ice surface as
well as huge ice waves that can build up as trucks move to
towards the shore.
A couple of years ago, Polar Industries was featured on an
episode of Ice Road Truckers, a weekly cable television show
on the History Channel that tells the story of tricky northern
transportation. Kohaykewych says that the show followed his
crews as they drove 7.5 days round-trip to Peawanuck on the
shore of Hudson Bay.
“This is the longest ice road in the world,” he said. “Recently,
we took a convoy of five units from Thompson to Gillam and
then from Gillam we carried to Shamattawa, and then to Fort
Severn and then all the way to Peawanuck along the coast of
Hudson Bay.”
Changes coming?
According to Kohaykewych, he is seeing governments paying
more attention to northern access and transport challenges.
“Yes, government could move faster on projects, but we all
have to consider the constraints of working in this territory
and the fact that the regions covered by winter roads are so
remote,” he said.
For the time being, it’s up to companies like Polar
Industries to make these roads work for communities.
“Viewers of shows like Ice Road Truckers might look at this
kind of heavy hauling as a novelty in the face of an industry
where sparkling transport trucks run on well serviced interstate
and national highways,” said Kohaykewych. “We look
at the challenge as just being all in a day’s work. It’s like offroading
for trucking professionals. We wouldn’t have it any
other way.”
FEATURE
Ready for the worst that winter roads can throw. Polar Industries’ crews are prepared to
pull, dig and push trucks with heavy equipment if the conditions require extra effort.
Polar truck readies a load
PHOTOS COURTESY OF POLAR INDUSTRIES
32 Q3 2016 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
