I deal with military construction engineers off and on. They say there is no need for heavy equipment to get a runway going for smaller aircraft. For smaller, gravel-strip runways, these could be built using Bobcat type plows and loaders, depending on what materials were available for construction.

To improve the runway to 5000' for a large, Hercules C-130, that you would need heavy equipment for, but it could be done as improvement to an existing strip, if it was planned right in the first place.

So, they could build a smaller runway this fall to bring in Twin Otter sized aircraft, and once freeze up occurs, build the winter road to bring in the heavy equipment. Using the traditional winter runways would continue, as the engineers work on increasing the capability for the heavier aircraft.

Once completed, these engineers could build hardened roads throughout the ROF area. Even a simple dirt track would be helpful for moving those drills around without having to airlift them by helo everytime.