Ontario Highway 502 to Dryden

Heard a rumor that 502 has some major construction, is very rough and causing delays. Has anyone traveled 502 recently and willing to share how it looks. Travel options from International Falls to Dryden are not plentiful and don’t want to go too far out of the way unless necessary.

I went through there a few weeks ago. Was kind of rough, but still made it without any issues. Might want to plan an extra half hour.

We were up around 4th of July.
South of Dryden they stripped down to gravel several miles but kept up with grading.
We had no delays because we go up later in evenings and leave early in morning.

I’ll be going through on Saturday. Hope its not slow on weekends.

Grouse

I was up there last week 10 miles of dirt with delays. We lost 45 minutes and my boat managed a few gravel chips which bummed me out. Good luck.

We came through last Thursday, the were still black topping, but by now they should be finished.

We got back on the 21st… Lower 30K they were doing culvert work and only on top of the culvert was open and in most cases was driveable without slowing a great deal. The upper side they were black topping keeping open about a 10 mile stretch. The dust is like concrete dust to remove and it seemed like they were moving to the south with the paving.

If they plan to cover all of the culverts on the south side/end they could be at it quite a while yet. If they were only trying to finish the upper portion, then Nord could be on the mark.

Mark

Attachments:

1. 

   7A4EE76A-7AAE-4B1D-8BBB-5D4BCD6E9EC7-1.jpeg
   

2. 

   62ECC4DC-2704-4BE3-88D3-5ECA2A1CBAC0-1.jpeg
   

3. 

   7A4EE76A-7AAE-4B1D-8BBB-5D4BCD6E9EC7.jpeg
   

4. 

   62ECC4DC-2704-4BE3-88D3-5ECA2A1CBAC0.jpeg
   

Thanks for the information. Leaving Saturday morning and I am hopeful the work nearly completed and the delays are minimal.

Thanks for the updates. I’m going through that stretch on Saturday afternoon and staying overnight in Dryden before we make the rest of the trip on Sunday.

Vexman wrote:

I was up there last week 10 miles of dirt with delays. We lost 45 minutes and my boat managed a few gravel chips which bummed me out. Good luck.

Canadian roads are never kind to boats or trailers. That crushed granite they use to seal coat will sandblast everything eventually.

You should have seen that road in the 1980s. It was almost all gravel except for some paved stretches at either end. I don’t believe the whole road was paved through until 1982. The logging trucks pounded the hell out of the gravel road and multiple flat tires were totally common for one trip, absolutely mandatory to have 2 spares.

I’ve always thought 502 feels like one of the most remote stretches of road in the world. You see almost nothing man-made except the road for the vast majority of that trip.

Grouse

We will be traveling on it the 10th for a Lac Suel adventure

Mwal

I drove that stretch on July 13. It was pretty bad at that time. About 45 minutes of delays and boat and trailer were covered in dirt. I stayed in Vermilion Bay and took 71 on the way home to avoid the mess on 502.

Yep 1978 broke the bracket that holds LP tank on camper and hit a hole so hard it shattered the rear window had to drive the rest of the way home with a plastic table cloth taped over the window good thing it didn’t rain

This sounds a lot like the drive into McCarthy, AK. Endless gravel in the middle of nowhere with a near guarantee of a flat tire. At least it was that way in the mid 2000s.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

You should have seen that road in the 1980s. It was almost all gravel except for some paved stretches at either end. I don’t believe the whole road was paved through until 1982. The logging trucks pounded the hell out of the gravel road and multiple flat tires were totally common for one trip, absolutely mandatory to have 2 spares.

I’ve always thought 502 feels like one of the most remote stretches of road in the world. You see almost nothing man-made except the road for the vast majority of that trip.

Update. Went through southbound on return home on 8/10.

On the southern 20-25 miles of 502, as has been mentioned, there has been culvert replacement work that appears to be all done for now. Gravel is across the replacement sections so heed signs to slow down as these can get rough with truckers blowing the gravel out.

On Friday they were repaving 2 sections of the road, one in the northern half of the road, one section in the south about 20 miles before the T junction outside of Ft. Francis. Flag people were out and traffic was one lane / taking turns in these sections, but total lost time was less than 15 minutes total.

The road has been repaved for a significant stretch, but that appears to have been done 2-3 weeks ago and is no longer impacting traffic.

Basically, the same kind of work that seems to go on every summer so far as I remember.

Grouse