Banff National Park of Canada

Park Management

Trans-Canada Highway Twinning Project
Phase IIIB: June 2007

Printable Version (PDF, 877 Kb)

The announcement of an additional 37 million dollars in funding through the Asia Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative was welcome news for the twinning project in October 2006. This brings the project budget up to 87 million dollars. Escalating construction costs and an in-demand labour market had whittled the original 10 km twinning project down to 6 km. Additional funding now allows 9 km of highway to be upgraded from two to four lanes. Project goals are to improve motorist safety; to reduce highway wildlife mortality and habitat fragmentation; and to improve the flow of goods and services on Canada’s national highway.

Four new bridge structures have now been built in the new traffic lanes:

• Canadian Pacific (CP) Rail highway bridge
• Bow River bridge
• 25-m wide wildlife underpass (near the Overflow Campground)
• Moraine Creek bridge

TCH work schedule Roadwork is underway from dawn to dusk, 7 days/week. Expect intermittent 5 minute delays and minor detours until further notice. For up-to-date road information, check the mountain parks road report at: 403.762.1450.

Final grading of 7 km of new lanes is underway with paving to follow. Traffic will shift from the existing highway lanes to the new lanes in late June. Roadwork to build another 2 km of new highway lanes at the project’s east end will get underway later this summer.

Two 4-m x 7-m elliptical culvert wildlife underpasses are now in place, one at the project’s west end and one towards the east end. These give wildlife that might follow the fence toward the fence ends, a safer crossing option than going around the fence ends.

Once traffic is moved to the new lanes, work on the existing highway bridges (CP Rail, Bow River, Moraine Creek), and the twin to the new 25-m wildlife underpass will begin. The old CP Rail bridge will be demolished due to its poor condition, and rebuilt to match its new twin.

The existing Bow River bridge will have a 30 metre extension built to match its new counterpart. The longer twin Bow River bridges will allow wildlife to use a natural movement corridor along the Bow River under the highway.

Rockblasting for a 60-m wide wildlife overpass between Lake Louise and the Icefields Parkway Interchange has been done in preparation for construction of the overpass. A second wildlife overpass will be built just west of Moraine Creek. Watch for associated roadwork and minor detours at both overpass locations this fall. The overpasses will be arch type structures similar to the two built in previous phases of highway twinning.

Fencing will happen in two phases: fence construction between the new Bow River bridge to the project’s eastern limit will be tendered by the fall; fence construction from the new Bow River bridge to the project’s west end will be tendered next year.

Since ending the fence right at Lake Louise would funnel wildlife into the hamlet, highway fencing will extend another 5 km to move the fence end west of Lake Louise. A short section of fence has been built west of the Icefields Parkway Interchange to pilot new methods for installation and other design changes.

All four lanes of the newly twinned highway are expected to go into service by late 2008.

Wildlife will be able to safely cross the highway alongside the river. The higher bridges also leave room for harlequin ducks to fly close above the water (as is their habit) when they move upstream to nest.

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