DCHP-2

ice road DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — Outdoors, Transportation

  a road built on the frozen surfaces of rivers or lakes, or over marshes or muskeg, that can only be used in winter (see Image 1).

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — This is a culturally salient term for a northern nation such as Canada. While DCHP-1 only lists winter road, the concept seems to be more frequently expressed by ice road today (apparently since the early 1970s). The term's history, however, is old (see the 1850 quotation). Climate change today (see the 2012 quotation) is already causing transportation problems in the far Arctic North. Note that DARE, s.v. "ice road" refers to an artifically made road, made by sprinkling water on a surface for freezing.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "ice road", which is marked "Cdn", ITP Nelson, s.v. "ice road", which is marked "Canadian", while Gage-5 lists the term without a regional label.

  See also: ice-road (DCHP-1)  muskeg  winter road defs. (2a) & (3)  

  • 1848  (1850)  That latterly, in the course of the winter, the Turnpike Road Trustees interrupted this communication by means of a number of hired persons whom they stationed on the public road to guard the different avenues leading to the said ice road, and by placing ropes and other barriers [...]. 
  • 1888  A warrant being issued, he had escaped to Allumette Island by the ice road, and he was returning to Pembroke by night to catch the midnight train to get away when he evidently got lost in the blizzard and perished on the ice, remaining in the ice till the break-up.
  • 1936  A team of horses, owned by James Gleeson of Sheenboro', Que., was drowned today when the animals went through the ice on the Ottawa River, near here. Gleeson, who jumped to safety, was bringing a load of wood to Pembroke over the ice road.
  • 1943  Then he led the way through the blinding storm. The trip took hours and morning was at hand when the trucks reached shore. But the ice road had been proved practical.
  • 1973  The sun shimmers on winding ice road to Inuvik.
  • 1996  Roads for sleighs had, for many years, been made over the St. Lawrence ice every winter. Sleighs using these ice roads had had their casualties. Now a railroad train - locomotive, cars and all - was to cross on tracks laid on the frozen river from shore to shore. 
  • 1999  Every kilometre was run on packed snow or ice. There were two ice bridges to be crossed and the last 200 km from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk were driven on the East Channel of the Mackenzie River. This remarkable ice road is the most northern "highway" you can access in North America and that's only during the winter months. 
  • 2005  It was very unusual, though, to find the calf out on the ice road, about a kilometre from shore because muskox do not travel across sea ice, but rather stay on the tundra, she pointed out. 
  • 2012  Kashechewan First Nation declared a state of emergency last week because it was running out of fuel and because 21 houses were not fit to face winter. The federal government stepped in with help, just in the nick of time. But fuel shortages are becoming more common among remote northern Ontario communities right now, said Alvin Fiddler, deputy grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a regional advocacy network. That's because the ice road used to truck in a year's supply of diesel last winter did not last as long as usual. "Everybody is running out now. We're looking at a two-month gap" until this winter's ice road is solid enough to truck in fresh supplies, Fiddler said in an interview.