28,000 tonnes
shipped in
2 months
Over 500 people
housed on site
700 jobs
created
800,000 manhours
with 0 LTIs
Challenges
- Located 500 km north of Canada’s Arctic Circle, severe climate and conditions posed significant technical and logistical challenges.
- The southern third of the railway corridor was in severe rock topography, raising significant rock-fall concerns.
- Ice-rich soils and deep permafrost along the railway corridor required critical and innovative geotechnical solutions to construct rail embankments.
- Frozen ocean conditions limited bulk resupply and shipments to a 70-day window in late summer. All other transport was by aircraft from local communities and southern Canada.
Solutions
- Completed optimization study of preliminary railway-infrastructure-design elements done by others to identify cost-saving innovations and measures.
- Executed detailed design of the main-railway-corridor civil works, including bridges and culverts; design of both yard-terminal tracks, sidings, and railway communication systems; and associated foundation.
Highlights
- Conducted two railway risk workshops.
- As part of the preliminary design, a Monte Carlo simulation modeled the project’s delivery based on 300 potential risks identified by stakeholder specialists.
- Conducted a second risk assessment within the project design team prior to beginning detailed design. Resulting mitigation measures were incorporated.
Project numbers
290 km of tracks30 bridges
200 culverts
57 switches
Services & technologies provided
Pyrometallurgy
Rail & transit systems
Transportation & logistics