Canada's back door

" Canada's Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) is developing a water route from Asia to the oil sands region in central Alberta.

This map and the post are based on a story in the June 2008 issue of the NTCL newsletter The Link.

As the map shows, if the Northwest Passage becomes viable NTCL may provide service from Europe as well.

NCTL has formed a joint venture with "heavy-lift experts Mammoet Canada to move very heavy, very large modules to the Fort McMurray, Alberta area for Oil Sands development projects."

Mammoet Canada is a subsidiary of a Dutch company.

The joint venture, the Arctic Marine Inland Transportation Ltd. (AMIT) "...can provide marine transportation services through the NTCL arm of the company, and the critical heavy-lift expertise and equipment through the Mammoet arm."

The market:

"Oil Sands companies wishing to take advantage of lower-cost steel manufacturing services outside of North America, perhaps in Korea or China..." 

The route:

"...can have the heavy modules needed for processing and upgrading facilities transported by ship across the Pacific and north to Point Barrow, Alaska.  From there, the route to Fort McMurray would follow along the North Slope to the Canadian Beaufort Sea, south along the Mackenzie River to Great Slave Lake, across the lake to go south on the Slave River to the Peace River, east on the Peace for a short distance to Lake Athabasca and then south on the Athabasca river to Fort Mackay, the route’s terminus."

The division of labor between the joint venture partners:

"NTCL would manage the marine portion of the trip, while Mammoet would handle the portage required to skirt the rapids on the Slave River at Fort Smith as well as all other land transportation from the Fort Mackay landing to the Oil Sands development site."

"NTCL and Mammoet, together and individually, have been promoting the idea of a southern inland marine route to Fort Mackay for about three years. To prove the route’s viability, NTCL did a test run with the Marjory and a 600-series barge in 2006..."

Jack Danylchuck wrote about this demonstration trip in the Oilsandsreview: Transport from the north.  Voyage of the Marjory demonstrates possible opportunity to ease oilsands logistics.  Here's how the portage was done on this trip.  To be portaged: "...the Marjory with two barges and a light cargo of vehicles, fuel, and close-grained red and black granite blasted from the Canadian Shield...."

"The portage, which is around four sets of rapids on the Slave River, is one of the challenges facing NTCL, especially because of the heavy loads the company would like to transport. For the voyage of the Marjory, Lawrence Stark and Jeff Richardson were waiting at Fitzgerald, the south end of the portage. Stark, a veteran of 37 years with NTCL, came out of retirement to manage the task of pulling the tug and barge from the river and returning the vessels to the water at Bell Rock, 22 kilometres north.

"For the demonstration project, Camsell ordered fir beams covered in tallow to make slipways that could be carried easily between the two sites. Caterpillar tractors pulled the tug and barge from the water and up the gentle slope to the staging area, where the vessels were raised with air jacks and blocked in place.

"Richardson supervised the task of easing the hydraulic beds of two multi-wheeled Scheuerle trailers beneath the vessels. The tractors and their loads filled the entire width of Highway 5 during the two-and-a-half-hour journey that started at 4 a.m.

"Heavy rain softened the staging area and hatched clouds of insects, but the portage ran smoothly. It took two days, coming and going, to move the tug and barge between Fitzgerald and Bell Rock.

"Heavy-lift specialists have used multi-wheeled Scheuerle trailers to move loads of 1,000 tons and more in the past, and Dave Foster is confident the feat can be repeated on the Slave River portage. That view is shared by a senior official at Mammoet, the heavy-lift specialist company that raised the Soviet submarine Kursk from 108 metres below the Barents Sea in 2001.

"“Technically, it’s certainly feasible,” says Bas Bronder, vice-president of operations for Mammoet Canada Western Limited; however, loads of 1,000 tons or more exceed legislated limits on Highway 5. The portage road crosses the Alberta–Northwest Territories boundary at the south edge of Fort Smith, and Mammoet is preparing technical documents for both governments."

Comments

[Mongoose]

Fascinating. I was wondering why we had so many Mammoet vehicles in Hay River this summer all of a sudden.

[jack moorhead]

i worked at bell rock 1963-64 i was the storekeeper
jack moorhead [email protected]