Success of Tłı̨chǫ Highway based on relationships built

Building the newly opened 97-kilometre Tłı̨chǫ Highway was an engineering challenge, but if you ask project manager Bruno Pigeon, the success of the project was built on relationships.

The Tłı̨chǫ Government, the government of the Northwest Territories and the company Pigeon works for, Kiewit Canada Development Corp., teamed up and created the Tłı̨chǫ-Kiewit general partnership to build the road that connects Whatì, N.W.T., to the territory's Highway 3. 

Pigeon said that changed the spirit of the project from a place where they had to hire local people to a place where they wanted to hire local people.

"It was the right thing to do. And there's a lot of highly talented individuals, really good workers, but mainly really good people that we met," said Pigeon.

One example was Wes Pellisey, a member of the Pehdzeh Ki First Nation in Wrigley and owner of the contracting company Brave Adventures. Pigeon said Pellisey helped his team understand the scope of work to be done.

"He knows the area really well."

Pigeon and his team would walk in front to make sure there was no wildlife before Brave Adventures cleared the trees.

"And so from one day to the other, it changed a lot," Pigeon said, noting it transformed from a single pickup truck trail to a space that was about 50 metres wide.

By December, they had already built 20 kilometres of road and by Christmas, they had a pioneering trail all the way to kilometre 85, the La Martre River Bridge.

"That was a critical piece for us," said Pigeon, "to get an access there so that we could see the main river and get our planning going for the construction of the bridge."

The La Martre River bridge is the fourth one on the highway but it was the most difficult to build, said Pigeon. He said it had to be 58 metres long and made out of steel. 

The construction team only had access to the bridge from one side of the river, so they built a second temporary bridge to get the crane across, to access materials, to build the abutments and to install the bridge.

"We achieved that in March 2020," said Pigeon.

Then COVID-19 hit.