Yukon halts river-freezing experiment at Dawson City

One week and $120,000 later, the Dawson City ice bridge-building experiment is dead in the water.

"We didn't get off to a good start,"said Yukon's Highways and Public Works Minister RichardMostyn. "We always knew that Mother Nature could be capricious."

The territorial government firstannounced the plan in late December: engineers would use "spray technology" previously used elsewhere, includingthe N.W.T. to help the Yukon River freeze over at Dawson City. If all went well, an ice bridge would be open to the public in as little as three weeks.

But on Tuesday,Mostyn saidthe high-pressure slush cannon had beenbuilding only a metre of ice perday. At that rate, bridgingthe 90-metre gap of open water would have taken three months.If temperatures had cooperated, staying at 30 C or below, it still would have taken up to six weeks to freeze the river.

Daytime temperatures in Dawson City creptabove zero last Tuesday and Wednesday.

• It 'looks like a big lawn sprinkler': River spraying starts in Dawson City

• Yukon gov't to build an 'ice Band-Aid' across river at Dawson City

'This was an experiment'

Mostyn insists the project wasn't just money down the river, though.

"This was an experiment. This was an innovative process to try to adapt to a changing climate," he said.

He says the territorial governmentwill again try to use the technology and engineering, but not until next winter.

"This year, it's done. We made our shot,"said Mostyn. "We weren't successful. The weather didn't cooperate. The technique at this stage didn't work. We didn't have enough time to make it happen."

He says next winter, engineers maystartspraying the ice as early as November, to take advantage of earlier ice formation.

The Yukon government typically maintains a winterice road crossing at Dawson every winter.About 100 people live across the water from the main town site, in West Dawson, and rely on the connection.

Last winter, however, the river never completely froze over where that government crossing normally is. This year looks similar, so far there's still thatstretch of open water.

The government usually spends about $80,000 each winter to build and maintain the crossing. WhenMostynannounced the plan to build an "ice Band-Aid," he said it would cost about $100,000, with an additional one-time investment of $100,000 for engineering costs.

To residents on the other side of the river, he says: "I'm sorry it didn't work this year."

"But we're an adaptive species and we do what we have to do to get the job done. People are making their way back to Dawson. But I couldn't tell you how they're doing that, and it's certainly not a way the Government of Yukon sanctions."

'I'm really upset'

Jesse Cooke has been living in West Dawson since 2013 and says he was initially a "believer"inthe plan to freeze the river.

"I was impressed with the speed of their response and for thinking outside of the box and actually tryingsomething," he said.

This week is a different picture.

"I'm really upset ... It was the only week we had warm temperatures like that. The only week this whole winter,"he said. "They show up for five work days Monday to Friday try to build an ice bridge in the rain, and then say itdidn't work? Then they turn around and go home?"

"Didn't you look at the forecast? There's a million reasons why I'm upset right now."

Cooke acknowledges that people oftenargue that residents of West Dawson andSunnydalechose to live across the river, and therefore knew what they were getting into.

"What I expected when I got into this was two periods of time seasonally, in the spring and in the fall when we can't get home. And that's okay, I get it,"said Cooke. "But there has always been a [government-built]ice bridge."

He says that's what he expected when he bought his property.

"Now I'm into this mortgage, and I don't know if I can ever sell this house. No one's going to buy this place without a bridge. We're stuck."

• Dawsonites waiting for Yukon River freeze up again