Banff National Park of Canada

Park Management

Trans-Canada Highway Twinning Project

Update: April 2009

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Upgrading the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park from two to four lanes has occurred in stages since 1981. To date, over half of the 83 km highway section in the park has been upgraded. These improvements will maximize motorist safety, reduce highway wildlife mortality and habitat fragmentation, and improve the flow of goods and services.

What's Happening:

1. The 9 km stretch of highway immediately east of Lake Louise (IIIB-1) will be open for traffic by mid-summer 2009. The project is currently 90% complete. It includes twinning, fencing, construction of 5 highway bridges, a pedestrian underpass crossing and 6 wildlife crossing opportunities (2 overpasses and 4 underpasses). Both overpasses will be ready for use by the fall. Monitoring is already detecting use of the completed crossing structures by bears, wolves, moose, ungulates and even lynx!
2. The August 2008 announcement of a $100 million investment from the Government of Canada’s “Building Canada” infrastructure plan will enable twinning work to proceed on a 14 km section west of Castle Junction (IIIB-2). Construction is set to begin this spring and will include fencing and 13 additional wildlife crossing opportunities (2 overpasses and 11 underpasses). When completed in 2011, the entire highway between Banff and Lake Louise will be four lanes.
3. Most recently, Budget 2009 – Canada’s Economic Action Plan – provides for an additional $130 million of funding that will complete the final phase of the project from Lake Louise west to the Alberta/British Columbia border (IIIB-3). Work includes reconstruction of the Icefields Parkway interchange, 6 new highway bridges, a pedestrian crossing and 3 wildlife underpasses. It is scheduled for completion by 2014.