Wood Buffalo National Park - Infrastructure Investment Project Completion
Backgrounder
Wood Buffalo National Park
Spanning 44,807 square kilometres, Wood Buffalo National Park is our country's largest national park and one of the largest in the world. It was established in 1922 to protect the last remaining herds of bison in northern Canada. Today, it protects an outstanding and representative example of Canada’s Northern Boreal Plains. This UNESCO World Heritage Site also contains the last remaining natural nesting sites of the whooping crane. The Peace-Athabasca Delta lies beneath several major migration flyway zones and provides one of the most concentrated nesting environments for geese and ducks on the planet.
Federal Infrastructure Project Completion
Project name: Wood Buffalo National Park - Chip-sealing of the remaining gravel portion of Highway 5 and new storage facility.
Project Description: Parks Canada recently completed roadway rehabilitation work on the 64 km-long gravel section of Highway 5 through Wood Buffalo National Park. Work included chip sealing, roadway widening, replacement of drainage culverts, where required, as well as improved slope stability and drainage along this section of highway. In addition to the chip sealing project, Parks Canada will construct a new winter sand and salt storage facility, which will be completed in 2018. The total investment for both the Highway 5 improvements and building of the new storage facility is estimated to be $27 million.
Northwest Territories (NWT) Highway 5 was established as an all-weather gravel highway in 1966 after being upgraded from a winter road. Over the ensuing decades, portions of the highway have been chip sealed in stages. With the completion of chip sealing on the last 64 kilometres of gravel highway in September 2017, the highway to Fort Smith and Wood Buffalo National Park is now fully chip-sealed along its entire length for the first time in its 51-year history, creating a more durable and overall improved and smooth highway surface.
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