Nunavimmiut to get sneak peek at potential road link to south

In this map from Genivar’s study on the feasibility of a rail link from Schefferville to Kuujjuaq, the proposed railway link is in red. Next week, Transport Quebec will present its preliminary findings from another study looking at a possible roadway connecting Kuujjuaq to the province’s southern road network. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavimmiut will get their first glance next week at what a road connecting the region to the rest of the province might look like.

Officials from Quebec’s department of transport will host a public meeting in Kuujjuaq Jan. 25 to share findings from a pre-feasibility study done on the potential construction of a road between Kuujjuaq and Quebec’s southern road network.

In 2011, Quebec’s spring budget promised a total of $1.2 billion for new infrastructure across the province’s north under Plan Nord, the Charest government’s 25-year scheme to develop the province above the 49th parallel.

Just under $90 million of that $1.2 billion was earmarked to look at developing major links to Nunavik — a deepwater port at the mouth of the Great Whale River, a road from Kuujjuaraapik to Radission and a road or railway linking Kuujjuaq to southern Quebec’s road network.

In December, Quebec-based engineering firm Genviar prepared a feasibility study which looked at building a roughly 600-kilometre line linking Kuujjuaq to the province’s southern rail network.

The study, which was presented to Quebec’s national assembly last month, pegged the project’s costs at over $2.5 billion.

A preliminary study on a ground link connecting Radisson to Kuujjuaraapik was also concluded in 2011, although its details have not been made public by Quebec’s transport department.

The Plan Nord may also include the construction of a road from Baie-Comeau on Quebec’s North Shore leading north from route 389 at Fermont on the Quebec-Labrador border, the province’s officials have said.

That could be the natural launching point for a way to connect Kuujjuaq to Quebec’s road network, via the community of Schefferville.

But the road study, commissioned by Makivik Corp., is very preliminary, said Quebec department of transport spokesman Guillaume Lavoie, noting that the project will require more research.

Transport Quebec will present its findings Jan. 25 at Kuujjuaq’s Kattitavik town hall starting at 7:00 p.m.