The Trans-Labrador Highway

For those who wish to travel the Trans-Lab Highway, we wanted to try to offer a comparison of it to other remote roads that we have traveled.  First, what are we comparing the Trans-Lab to?  We have driven the Haul Road, the Dempster, the Liard Trail, the Mackensie, Edgerton Highway, Hatcher Pass, Top of the World Highway, Bella Colla Highway, Silver Trail, Chaco Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, and the Alpine Loop… just to name some of the better known remote, gravel, and/or four-wheel drive roads.  Here are a few of our observations:

• The Labrador Coastal Trail, Trans-Lab Highway, and Quebec’s Highway 389 combine to make a very long trip, over 1,100 miles one way from the Newfoundland ferry landing to Baie Comeau in Quebec.  Probably the closest equivalent would be driving to and from Inuvik on the Dempster.  The Trans-Lab road, however, is, overall, in much better condition.  It also does not provide the variation of topography or wildlife viewing (we only saw one black bear and no other large mammals on the Trans-Lab) as the Dempster.
• The road is rolling in many places and quite flat in others.  Roads have been cut over mountains rather than along the mountainsides, resulting in miles of ups and downs.  However, this also means that there are no sheer drop offs along the sides of mountains.  Neither is there any high mountain passes like you will find on the Bella Colla Highway or the Alpine Loop.  Probably the highest altitude on the Trans-Lab is about 2,000 feet, along the Eagle Plateau.

Typical road along Trans-Lab Highway

• The road is very remote.  It is cut through wilderness and has very few places to refuel, however none are outside of the range of most vehicles.  As an example, the longest distance between refueling stations was 250 miles.  (We will post refueling stops later.) 
• The road definitely has its rough spots, but its overall condition is fairly good and will continue to improve over time.  Our understanding is that the Canadian government hopes to have the entire road paved within the next five years.
• Road conditions range from new pavement to washboard gravel.  The older sections of the paved parts of the road, particularly on Highway 389, are deeply grooved by the heavy tractor-trailer rigs and were often the roughest part of the entire trip.  Beware of hydroplaning during rain.
• Speed limits are posted between 50 and 80 kilometers per hour.  We probably averaged about 60 to 70 kilometers per hour or 40-45 miles per hour, but we also traveled a good bit of the road in rain.  Many passed us going much faster, however, we also saw at least a half dozen sedans and one pickup truck totaled along the sides of the road, most belly up.  In one instance, the pavement ended quite abruptly with an awkward and rough transition to the gravel.  The remains of a rolled sedan offered testament to the dangers of traveling the road at high speeds or overriding headlights at night.  In another place the road had a lot of deep, loose gravel on a turn with a sedan rolled over in the ditch belly up. 
• The road passes through many sandy and boggy areas, so much of the road is elevated with narrow shoulders and steep ditches on either side. This offers good drainage, and we didn’t have any problems with standing water on the road like we had on the Dempster and Dalton Highways.  However, the elevation of the road and soft soil along the sides can be treacherous if you end up in one of the ditches.  We saw a rather new pickup truck about 50 feet off the opposite side of the road (but pointed in our direction), buried to the hood in one of these bogs. 
• Other cautions that we want to add concern the section of road about ten miles south of Fremont. The pavement ends here at one of the mines.  Drivers will travel between the railroad tracks and the reclamation area.  Past the mine, drivers will encounter a rather long and windy gravel road with a series of railroad crossings, many on blind corners.  While a few have signal lights, the majority of the crossings are protected only by stop signs.  We met several trains along this route and encourage drivers to be extra cautious.  Also, beware of oncoming wide loads and trucks taking their “half out of the middle,” as we say in Texas.  Also some sections of the highway in this area are very narrow and contain several one-lane bridges.
• One substantial benefit to traveling this road that we have not found elsewhere involves the safety measures that have been put in place for drivers.  Because much of Labrador is out of cell phone range, the Province provides a satellite phone free of charge for travelers for emergency use.  If someone becomes ill, stranded, or has an accident, they need only use the phone to call emergency services.  Each phone is preset to dial the Labrador City police.  Drivers can pick up the phone in several places along the highway.  We picked ours up at the Northern Light Hotel in L-Anse Clair and returned it at the Wabush Hotel in Wabush.  Quebec has a somewhat similar emergency service, offering S.O.S. phones spread out along Highway 389.
• There was a mix of vehicles on the road, including tractor/trailer rigs, sedans, and pickup trucks.  However the vast majority were pickup trucks, mostly company vehicles. There were some people pulling trailers.  From an engineer's perspective, David feels that the road would damage a large trailer or fifth wheel designed for paved roads unless you drive very slowly or bolster the undercarriage. We saw a couple of motorhomes, but they were small and it was a rare occurrence.
• We did not sustain any chip damage to our windshield, but we attributed that to the relatively low volume of heavy trucks on the gravel sections.  We also learned while driving the Dempster and Dalton roads that slowing down or stopping as the big rigs passed by us greatly reduced the impact of stones on the vehicle.  We also would pull over to allow working vehicles and rigs to pass us.

Please see our next post for more photos and details (Traversing the Trans-Lab) of our travel experiences.  If you have specific questions, please comment below, and we’ll be happy to answer them… until then, we’ll keep you posted!

UPDATE:  To upload a log of our trip, including road and landmark details, satellite phone and S.O.S. phone data, camping information, and other road information, please copy and paste the following link into your browser.

• https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B42Bv-TOOj4wYUFDaW1wQVk2aUE/edit?usp=sharing

Newfoundland and Labrador on Dwellable