The colder than average winter had led to an extended ice road season in northern Saskatchewan.
Most years the ice roads are closed to traffic by the Ministry of Highways on March 31st, but this year they are still in use.
Officials say there are some ice ridges and reduced speed limits to watch for, but large vehicles are still being allowed on the routes.
Saskatchewan Highways spokesperson Joel Cherry says with the cold temperatures, there is still a solid ice cover on northern lakes:
“In the case of the Wollaston Lake ice road, that ice is still 30 inches thick so it’s open to full weights. Heavy trucks can still travel there, and in a lot of cases on the large ice roads the ice is still nice and thick — like the Fond Du Lac-Uranium City ice road, Points North Landing to Black Lake, Shasko Bay to Fond Du Lac, and several of these ones in the Athabasca region are still open to full loads.”
Cherry says ice conditions are monitored on a regular basis and part of that job includes drilling holes to measure the thickness.
“Ice roads are typically about 45 metres across and its done on the left side, the center and the right side to make sure we have a good reading for the entire road. And it is also possible to use ground penetrating radar which provides sort of a continuous readout on what’s going on with the ice thickness. And those are often used for ice roads that are too long to test manually or areas where there may be fluctuations in the ice thickness, such as river crossings.”
Updated information on the ice roads is available by calling the Highways Hotline.
The Saskatchewan Highways website also includes an interactive map with road information from across the province.