I've spent the last few days poring over topographical maps. road maps and rail corridors in our area of interest, and have come to a few very compelling conclusions.

60-70% of a route in from Pickle Lake would utilize existing winter roadbeds, and with a whole bunch of culverts, 2 small bridges and two larger ones, the road could likely be open year round within 2 years. These larger bridges would be equal in size to a couple of small bridges on the southern route, but nowhere near the size needed to span the two big rivers.

This route would provide access for a substantial workforce from local communities.

It would open up a huge area for further exploration at greatly reduced cost.

The most compelling point I found though, was that from a point 20km south of Webequie, heading southwest on present trails, then swinging south on the west side of Lansdowne house, and on towards Armstrong, there is a corridor that adds 75 km to the rail line, but completely eliminates the need for those two huge bridges that are needed on the southern route. Wonder what the tradeoff would be for miles of track as opposed to bridge costs?

At any rate when word does come down on certain decisions that are required here, they will come without warning. To reach far back into history for comparisons, I do recall the excitement in northern Manitoba in the mid 1950's, when an announcement came out that the province and Inco had come to agreement on construction of the complex in Thompson. In this case, CN agreed to build the 70 km spur line. Manitoba Hydro agreed to build the dam at Kelsey, and the province committed to a highway within a 10 year window. Although there were many rumors around, none of these commitments were actually published until the crucial day.

Another example is the northeast coal project in Tumbler Ridge in the early eighties. There was speculation on many fronts, but little committment from anyone until one day in 1981, when Quintette coal and Teck both announced plans to proceed with construction. Also on that same day, the province announced a decision to build the townsite, a road from the north was confirmed, and CN announced a railline in from the south.

In both of the above cases, there had to be huge discussions behind the scenes to put it all together, none of which was public knowledge, just like today.

Best regards

K