Alaska Highway

A Road Built for War

In 1942, with the Second World War spreading across the Pacific, Canada and the United States began an extraordinary undertaking: building an overland route through northern British Columbia and the Yukon to Alaska. Geographically isolated from the rest of the United States, Alaska had no reliable overland route capable of supporting its defence. Built at wartime speed, the Alaska Highway was completed in a matter of months, but that was only the beginning of its story.

After the war, Canada assumed control and maintenance of the highway within its borders. The Department of National Defence began improving the hastily built route, including smoothing out many of the diversions created during its rapid construction.

In 1948, the NorthWest Highway System (NWHS) was formally established. Headquartered in Whitehorse, it included the Alaska Highway and its tributary routes. Road maintenance was the responsibility of the Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE). Keeping the vehicles and equipment operational became the job of the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RCEME).

RCEME Takes on the North

Historical route map of the NorthWest Highway System, supplied for this story — RCEME workshops and detachments provided repair and recovery support across this enormous northern transportation system, stretching from Dawson Creek to the Alaska border.Map: RCEME Quarterly

RCE operated the Highway Maintenance Establishment and No. 1 Road Maintenance Company. Supporting them and other military operations was 16 Company RCEME.

Headquartered at Whitehorse, 16 Company operated an inspection team that frequently served as a mobile repair unit. Two principal workshops, each with approximately 80 personnel—roughly half RCEME and half civilian—divided responsibility for repair and recovery along the Canadian highway.

220 Workshop RCEME — Fort Nelson

Based at Fort Nelson, the 220 Workshop covered the highway from Dawson Creek to the Lower Liard River at Mile 497, with an Advance Workshop Detachment (AWD) at Dawson Creek.

The workshop moved into a new building in 1952, but problems quickly appeared. Faulty construction left the roof in danger of collapse, requiring so many supporting props that personnel christened the collection the “Musqua [sic] National Forest,” after the nearby Muskwa River.

Sgt-Major J. Tatham seated at his desk at Fort Nelson — Sgt-Major J. Tatham at his desk at Fort Nelson, B.C. A Second World War veteran seconded from the Directorate of Military Engineering in Ottawa, Tatham served as Equipment Technical Sergeant Major with 220 Workshop, coordinating technical supply, maintenance operations and the workshop’s various trades.Photo: Canadian Army

16 Company RCEME medals parade at Fort Nelson, 1951 — 16 Company RCEME Medals Parade at Fort Nelson, 1951

Aerial view of permanent married quarters at Fort Nelson — Permanent Married Quarters (PMQs) provided family housing for military personnel posted at Fort Nelson.

“When we walked in, the beds were made, decorations were up and people were singing Christmas carols. Mom sat down at her piano and started playing…. We had Christmas dinner in our own house, which meant a lot to us as a family.”
— Warren Moore, recalling his family's first Christmas at Fort Nelson, 1951Excerpt courtesy of the Fort St. John North Peace Museum & North Peace Historical Society; Northern Trails Heritage Society (NTHS)

219 Workshop RCEME — Whitehorse

From the Lower Liard River north to the Alaska border, responsibility passed to 219 Workshop at Whitehorse, with AWDs at Watson Lake and Destruction Bay.

The 219 Workshop occupied the former machine-shop building of the CANOL (Canadian Oil) Refinery at Whitehorse, with its vehicle paint shop in a separate building. The wooden construction made fire prevention particularly important.

“As we were about a thousand miles from railhead and air service was spasmodic, we were forced to seek our own amusements. The US Army had turned over to Canada their Armed Forces Radio station in Whitehorse … [and we brought] in sports events such as the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup play-off games. Eventually, we had thirty volunteers and broadcast programs for 16 hours per day.”
— Lieutenant W.E. Royd, in Canada’s Craftsmen at 50

Repair It—Or Make It

Distance shaped almost everything RCEME did.

Spare parts could take a long time to arrive, and equipment could not simply sit idle while a replacement component made its way north. As a result, the two workshops performed some repairs that would normally have been undertaken farther back in the maintenance system.

The 219 Workshop developed particularly extensive capabilities. In addition to its machine shop, it operated battery, radiator and tire shops. Its personnel worked to a straightforward principle: if an item could be repaired, it was repaired—even if that required manufacturing the necessary parts.

The battery shop provided a striking example.

Used batteries were completely disassembled. Serviceable components were recovered, cleaned and reused. Lead components were melted down and recast. Each rebuilt battery was given its own serial number so its performance could be tracked.

The results were impressive. According to Canada's Craftsmen at 50, these rebuilt batteries lasted at least three times as long as new factory-built batteries.

That willingness to rebuild rather than replace equipment was particularly valuable where the next suitable repair facility might be hundreds of miles away. The 219 Workshop, for example, had the only wheel-alignment equipment north of Fort St. John—more than 1,300 kilometres down the highway.

Keeping the Highway Clear

Repair was only part of RCEME's responsibility. Recovery was another major task.

A standing intergovernmental agreement required the highway to remain clear. When a damaged or disabled vehicle could not be quickly repaired or recovered, RCEME personnel pushed or hauled it off the road so traffic could continue, returning later to recover or repair it.

This was particularly important at bridges. With traffic confined to a single crossing, a disabled vehicle could create a choke point and interrupt movement along the route. Removing it quickly could be essential to keeping the highway open.

Diamond-T recovery vehicle equipped with a heavy pusher front — Diamond-T wreckers fitted with heavy pusher fronts like this one were the standard recovery vehicles.Photo: Base Borden Military Museum

Even though the vehicles were powerful, driving a wrecker could be hazardous. On one operation, the Watson Lake wrecker was climbing a hill with a loaded six-ton truck on suspended tow when its driver missed a downshift. The wrecker and tow began rolling backwards. The driver switched off the ignition and tried to leave the vehicle but was caught by the pusher guard and dragged down the hill, badly injuring his leg.

The truck being towed overturned and was written off. Remarkably, the Diamond-T remained upright and suffered only minor damage to its booms. Recovering the recovery vehicle became another operation in itself: an 800-metre track had to be constructed simply to reach it.

It was an extreme example of a routine problem: on the NWHS, recovery could require ingenuity, heavy machinery and considerable effort before repair work even began.

When the North Took Over

Spring flooding was another recurring problem. Small streams rapidly became torrents as snow and ice melted. On one occasion, more than twenty washouts occurred within a 50-kilometre section of road, trapping the non-commissioned officer in charge at Destruction Bay between them for several days.

Archival postcard showing Donjek River Basin refuelling station, 1942 to 1943 — Donjek River Basin, 1942–43. A wartime refuelling point during construction of the original Alaska Highway. A decade later, RCEME personnel would be called upon to recover equipment buried by flooding during construction of the Donjek River bridge.Image: National Film Board of Canada (NFB); postcard Provincial News Company, Edmonton

One of the most dramatic examples came during construction of the Donjek River bridge, a top-priority NWHS project in the early 1950s.

The flood came on fast. At midnight the site was quiet. By morning, it was under water. The work bridge had washed away and equipment was buried beneath water, mud and silt. Personnel from 219 Workshop RCEME spent two weeks on the clean-up.

Some buried equipment had to be located using mine detectors. An 80-horsepower steamer was found only because the tip of its stack protruded from the mud. Flooding packed machinery with silt. When personnel removed the cover from a large voltage regulator, they found a solid block of silt inside, with the manufacturer's name pressed into its surface by the cover.

Newspaper account concerning completion of the Donjek bridge — Image: Whitehorse Star, June 20, 1952

“What was more ironic was that when the bridge was completed, the Whitehorse Star gave the credit to RCEME not RCE. The staff of 16 Company RCEME were sure that the Star was correct!” — Captain J.W. Moody, in Canada’s Craftsmen at 50

The incident illustrates the relationship between RCE and RCEME. Getting the project moving again required not only work on the site but the recovery, cleaning and repair of the equipment needed to continue the job.

From Wartime Road to Northern Highway

The military's responsibility for the NorthWest Highway System ended in 1964 and the NWHS was disbanded. By then, the emergency wartime road constructed in 1942 had undergone years of improvement to become an established northern transportation route.

RCEME’s work had helped make that transformation possible. It was an essential contribution to a highway that had begun as a wartime necessity and evolved into a vital link between Alaska and the rest of the continent.

Today, the Alaska Highway remains the only overland route to Alaska, carrying people and products through a region where all-season road connections are still limited. It also remains an enduring legacy of what Canada and the United States accomplished together, first as wartime allies and later in developing and maintaining an important northern connection.

For RCEME, the mission was simple: keep the equipment working and keep the highway open.

RCEME: Keeping the Highway Open

220 Workshop RCEME — Fort Nelson

219 Workshop RCEME — Whitehorse