Project Description

In partnership with InterGroup Consultants, Palmer was retained by the Kivalliq Inuit Association to inform the routing and cost estimation of the proposed 1,200 km-long Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link (KHFL), which will bring high-speed Internet and hydroelectricity from Gillam, Manitoba, to several coastal Arctic communities and mines in Nunavut. Our surficial geologists and permafrost scientists, working in collaboration with researchers at the University of Laval, narrowed a 10 km-wide land use planning corridor to a preferred, 1.2 km-wide corridor within which ground conditions are most favourable for the installation of steel towers.

We mapped the terrain and permafrost based on historical aerial photography and newly acquired, high-resolution LiDAR imagery and calibrated results through field investigations representative of the geomorphological diversity of the corridor. These investigations included visual reconnaissance, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) geophysical surveys, installation and monitoring of ground temperature sensors, and soil and permafrost sampling using Palmer’s lightweight Talon drill.