{"id":201228,"date":"2021-01-08T17:44:48","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T22:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csce.dev\/en\/?post_type=historic_site&p=201228"},"modified":"2022-07-06T11:41:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T15:41:02","slug":"town-of-inuvik-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"historic_site","link":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/historic-site\/town-of-inuvik-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Town of Inuvik Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"\"\r\n
Inuvik Utilidor for water and sewage conveyance. (Source: K. Johnson)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Site Location: Lat.: 68\u00b0 \u2013 21\u2019 \u2013 42\u201d N.; Long.: 133\u00b0 \u2013 43\u2019 \u2013 50\u201d W. (GPS: 68.361667, -133.730556). At the north end of the Dempster Highway, km 736 (mi. 457).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Location: The plaque is mounted on a pipe column in Chief Jim Koe Park, Inuvik. (GPS: 68.3564889, -133.7199569). From the Dempster Highway, turn left (west) onto MacKenzie Road and proceed 1.3 km to Chief Jim Koe Part on the left (north).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Plaque on short column, left, in Chief Jim Koe Park. (Source: K. Johnson)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Description: The town of Inuvik was built to replace the flood-prone community of Aklavik, which had served as a key centre for trade and transportation for the Mackenzie Delta since 1920. An extensive selection process in the 1950s throughout the Delta area ultimately identified the site for the new town, some 2,000 km (1250 mi.) northwest of Edmonton. The design and construction occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Inuvik is situated on permafrost. To prevent heat from warm buildings and services thawing the permafrost, causing them to sink, most structures are constructed on timber piles drilled five metres into the ground. A space of one-half to one metre is maintained between the ground and the soffit of the structure. Water and sewer services are provided using heated above-ground \u201cutilidors\u201d, which were replaced in 2009.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Cross section of 1960s utilidor
(Source: K. Johnson)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Cross section of 2009 utilidor
(Source: K. Johnson)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Historic Significance: Inuvik is Canada\u2019s largest, and the first completely \u201cengineered\u201d, community north of the Arctic Circle. The design and construction of Inuvik pioneered cold region engineering practices such as pile construction, freeze protection of water and sewer systems and construction techniques associated with isolated northern communities. Engineers and contractors expected the permafrost depth to be one metre (3.3 ft.), but discovered instead that the permafrost depth is 350 m (1150 ft.). Inuvik\u2019s above-ground \u201cutilidor\u201d is unique in the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"\r\n
Plaque detail. (Source: K. Johnson)<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Wording: National Historic Civil Engineering Site. CSCE. TOWN OF INUVIK NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. A tribute to the engineers and contractors who planned, designed and built the Town of Inuvik, Northwest Territories in the late 1950\u2019s. Inuvik is Canada\u2019s largest community north of the Arctic Circle. The building of Inuvik pioneered cold regions engineering design and construction practices for building infrastructure in permafrost, freeze protection of water and sewer systems in extremely cold temperatures and construction planning and execution in isolated northern communities. Inuvik\u2019s above ground, pile supported piped utilities remain a unique and robust municipal water and sewer system. Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. 2012.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

SCGC. Site Historique National de G\u00e9nie Civil. VILLE D\u2019INUVIK TERRITOIRES DU NORD-OUEST. Un hommage aux ing\u00e9nieurs et entrepreneurs qui ont planifi\u00e9, con\u00e7u et construit la ville d\u2019Inuvik dans les Territoires du Nord-ouest vers la fin des an\u00e9es 1950. Inuvik est la plus grande communaut\u00e9 situ\u00e9e au nord du cercle arctique. Sa construction a ouvert la voie dans le domaine de l\u2019ing\u00e9nierie des regions froides et des pratiques de construction de b\u00e2timents dans le perg\u00e9lisol, la protection contre le gel des systems d\u2019eau et d\u2019egouts dans les temperatures extrement froides ainsi que la planification et l\u2019ex\u00e9cution te travaux de construction dans des communaut\u00e9s isol\u00e9es du nord. Les installations reposant sure des pieux hors du sol d\u2019Inuvik restent un system d\u2019eau et d\u2019\u00e9gouts municipal unique et robuste. 2012. Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 canadienne ce genie civil.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Plaque Unveiling Ceremony: The plaque was unveiled at Hanger 14, the Alberta Aviation Museum, at the 2012 Annual Conference in Edmonton.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Links to Online Documentation:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Canadian Museum of History, \u201cInuvik\u201d.
Ken Johnson, \u201cUtilidor Replacement in Inuvik, NWT\u201d, 2010 WCW Conference Paper
Samantha Stokell, \u201cInuvik nominated for national award\u201d, Northern News Services, 2011.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Site Location: Lat.: 68\u00b0 \u2013 21\u2019 \u2013 42\u201d N.; Long.: 133\u00b0 \u2013 43\u2019 \u2013 50\u201d W. (GPS: 68.361667, -133.730556). At the north end of the Dempster Highway, km […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22598,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","classification":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/201228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/historic_site"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201228"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/201228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211003,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/historic_site\/201228\/revisions\/211003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"classification","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.csce.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classification?post=201228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}