ICE ROADS
Gertjan Houtman

Winter ice-routes, built over frozen lakes and tundra in the far north of Canada, offer an economical alternative to air supply for areas not on the regular road system.

This programme shows the road from Yellowknife to isolated diamond mines in the far reaches of the Canadian Northwest Territories. It is only open for two to three months a year during which some twelve thousand loads of fuel, cement and other bulk supplies are trucked across one of the most inhospitable regions on earth.

The unstable nature of the ice means that regulations about the speed of the trucks, their distances apart and the sizes of their convoys have to be strictly enforced. At the same time there is continual pressure on the drivers to get their loads in and out as quickly as possible.

This programme includes interviews with truckers and safety officials who give a real insight into the challenging conditions in which they have been working.

This programme is filmed by Gertjan Houtman, a journalist and film-maker who specialises in heavy transport.

DVD Info

Region: 2
Running Time: 38 minutes