Banff National Park of Canada

Park Management

Table of Contents | Introduction | Current Twinning | Highway Fencing & Wildlife Crossings

Trans-Canada Highway Twinning Project, Phase IIIB: November 2005

Printable Version (PDF, 324 Kb)

With trees cleared for the second lane, twinning of the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) is proceeding on a section of highway east of Lake Louise. Over the last few months, the challenge for the project team has been to stay within its budget and general project schedule in the face of rising construction costs and the in-demand labour market. Despite the challenge, Parks Canada remains committed to twinning as much highway with associated mitigations that current funds will permit, thus delivering the world-class project described in our environmental assessment. When completed, the section twinned will contribute to safer travel conditions for people and wildlife, and smoother flow of goods and services on Canada’s national highway.

Construction on the Trans-Canada Highway
© Parks Canada

Project Update

• Contracts for initial project work were tendered as scheduled this summer. However, construction costs have been increasing and tenders came in well above estimates. This resulted in some delays as the tenders had to be repackaged and again posted for bid.
• Preparation for the new lanes is underway with special measures in place to protect soils, water quality, and native plant and wildlife communities.
• Initial grading work began in mid-October and will continue, Monday through Saturday, until mid-December. Blast rock is going into place on the north side of the TCH from the Bow River to the start of twinning at Lake Louise. Blasting and rock removal is underway about 3 km east of the Lake Louise junction, requiring traffic delays of up to 45 minutes between 10 am - 2 pm. For long weekends and the Men’s and Women’s World Cup Downhill and Super-G weekends at the Lake Louise Ski Area, construction will cease at noon on Friday and resume on Monday. Work will resume in spring 2006 with placing of fill around the Moraine Creek bridge area.
• A separate gravel crushing operation for construction aggregate is underway with work expected to finish in mid-December. It will not affect traffic.
• Please obey posted speed limits and flag people through the construction zone.
• The next Stakeholder Advisory Committee meeting is anticipated for sometime in February to review the past year and provide a complete project update.

Project Quick Facts

• $50 million budget through Infrastructure Canada to start project. Overall cost to twin from Castle Junction to the Alberta-BC border is estimated at $200 million.
• Summer traffic volumes on the TCH in the park average one vehicle every six seconds. Traffic volume is currently increasing two percent annually.
• 48 km of the TCH’s 83 kilometres in Banff National Park was twinned between 1979 and 1997.
• Since 1996, monitoring has revealed that 10 species of large mammals have used the existing 24 wildlife crossing structures more than 60,000 times.
• Eighteen major crossing structures and dozens of smaller ones are planned for the section of highway between Castle Junction and the Alberta-BC border.

Overview of Twinning Project

Trans-Canada Highway Project Phase IIIB
© Parks Canada

Click here to view a larger version of this map (36 KB).
(This image is larger than 450 pixels)
PDF Version (40 KB)

For up-to-date information, check the mountain park road conditions report at: 403.762.1450.

For more information

• Screening Report for the Trans-Canada Highway Twinning Project Phase IIIB (Executive Summary)
• Highway Mitigation Research in the Mountain Parks

Click to go back

Note: To read the PDF version you need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your system.

If the Adobe download site is not accessible to you, you can download Acrobat Reader from an accessible page.

If you choose not to use Acrobat Reader you can have the PDF file converted to HTML or ASCII text by using one of the conversion services offered by Adobe.