The Right
Formula
Formula Contractors Ltd. of
Prince George, B.C., has forged a
strong reputation as a northern
construction specialist during its
four decades of doing business
By Mark Halsall
Last year was a big year for Formula Contractors Ltd.;
it marked 40 years in business for the Prince George,
B.C., company, as well as the successful completion of
its work on a remarkable legacy project – the Inuvik to
Tuktoyaktuk Highway.
The 140-kilometre long gravel highway in the Northwest
Territories is Canada’s first all-weather road to the Arctic
coast, connecting Inuvik on the eastern flank of the Mackenzie
River Delta to its northern neighbour on the Beaufort Sea.
After four years of construction, the $300-million route offi-cially
opened to year-round traffic on Nov. 15, 2017.
“That was just an awesome project to be part of,” said Phil
Toma, director of operations for Formula Contractors.
The Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway includes eight bridges,
all of them built by Formula Contractors, who also installed
30 large diameter SPCSP culverts for the project.
A crew of about a dozen workers completed the work for
Formula Contractors over the course of four winter construc-tion
seasons.
“It takes a hardy type when you’re dealing with -40°C
weather and only working in three or four hours of daylight
each day. They have to have the skill set, too – you need to be
able to weld, you need to know how to run equipment and
troubleshoot, you need to be ready to pull wrenches if you
have to. You have to do everything,” said Toma.
“It takes a special person to want to do it, for sure,” he said.
“A lot of guys see a job like this as a challenge. For them, it’s
pretty cool to say they worked up there and accomplished this.”
PHOTOS: FORMULA CONTRACTORS LTD. 34 Q2 2018 www.pilingcanada.ca
