The evolution of the ice road: changing regulations and new innovations minimize impact.

• Author: Cottrell, Paula
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

Ice roads, in Alaska date back to the 1940's when the United States Navy began oil and gas exploration in the Arctic. By bulldozing roads directly on the tundra, they destroyed vegetation and thawed the underlying permafrost, leaving ditches that are still visible today across the landscape. Road construction techniques have improved considerably since that time as industry, researchers and agencies have learned more about the environment and how to safely build temporary roads in the winter months that won't cause damage to Alaska's tundra.

When Dave Cruz, CEO of Cruz Construction, began constructing ice roads in 1978, standard practice for construction consisted of a conventional water truck bouncing down the road spraying water. "There was no pre-packing in those days," says Cruz. "We just poured the water on and kept on moving." Eric Wieman, ice road project manager for Peak Oilfield Service Co. LLC relates. "Cat trains were initially used to pack down the snow and build roads for access without regard to tundra damage and water usage. A lot has changed just in regulations and permitting alone," he says.

Peak and Cruz Construction have been building ice road infrastructure on the North Slope for decades. This season, Peak has built and maintained almost 70 miles of BP and ConocoPhillips roads that include sections of the ice road to Alpine, the Colville River and Kuparuk while Cruz has been busy with Savant's 28-mile ice road to Badami and Linc Energy's 100-mile snow trail to their new drilling site just outside of Umiat. Alaska Frontier Constructors, another player in North Slope ice road construction, built a road from Badami to Point Thompson for ExxonMobile as well as a few projects for Rexall and Pioneer.

Working on Nature's Schedule

Successful ice road construction often relies on working with Mother Nature's schedule. "Snow on the North Slope comes early--usually in September and October," says Cruz. "There is minimal snowfall November through January so the task becomes a matter of preserving the snow you do get at the beginning of the season."

Because DNR regulations require six inches of snow and 12 inches of frost before an ice road can be used, it becomes a matter of "driving the frost down." Measuring snow can be as simple as sticking a ruler in the snow and recording the data, but according to Wierman, historicaly a cone penetrometer was used to record frost depths.

"A penetrometer works by counting the blows that it takes...