Would you consider this to be BC's biggest bottleneck on the TCH?

At least one of the most expensive ones to fix...? ;)

Oh i bet that geography looks super crazy to blast through!

I calculated phase 4 being around 150,000CAD per meter. Super expensive. The geography and more especially the rock is sediment one and very fragile. I was reading about it some time ago. I am curios how they are going to solve the engineering problems with the slides and unstable rock in the area. Perhaps that was the reason when SNC-Lavalin planed building a bridge across and if I remember more than 2 km tunnel and than another bridge. Cannot find the project now but remember the estimate being more than a billion dollars. That was like more than 20 years ago i think. Anyway, this is the past. Cannot wait to make my trip to Banff and Kenmore from Vancouver for less then 8 hours. :runaway:
If any of you happened to be in the area please, please post some pictures.

The Rockies are known for their instability. One can probably deduce that just by looking at the uneven rockface.
The Shields (in Ontario) on the other hand are known for their hardness. Lol it's hard to blast those too but for a different reason. :P

In terms of sheer traffic volume the biggest bottleneck has to be TCH between Hope and Surrey.

I would say it’s probably the most well known one from a Calgary perspective (for all the wrong reasons :().
Unfortunately there are so many bottlenecks on the TCH through BC to choose from.

This went by unnoticed but a solid upgrade.

I would have preferred a direct ramp and flyover coupled with the roundabout (traffic for downtown Quesnel would enter the roundabout but 97 through traffic would continue free flow) but given the location and traffic volumes this is an area where I can concede my desire for an interchange and be happy with the project.

This is a good bypass.

Really wish the Peachland bypass wasn’t shelved...

Probably an auto correct issue, but did Sears sponsor Canmore and get to change its name?? :P

But point taken about the Kicking Horse Canyon, looking forward to it being done. I'm curious if Golden will see an accelerated transformation as a tourist destination as its easier to access from the east.

Lol good catch. :haha:

Time will tell about Golden.

Well Revelstoke seems to be pretty popular with Albertan weekend warriors so Golden should pick off a bit of that traffic?

https://goo.gl/maps/oecPkrt2tiqruZVKA
Does anyone know the depth of the rock cut here? I eyeballed it and thought it possible to stack 18 passenger vehicles to match the height. If each one has a height of 1.75 m, the rock cut should be 1.75 m x18 = 31.5 m deep.

Approximately 80 meters according to this website: https://www.flatironcorp.com/project...ng-horse-pass/

They also have a good picture there that helps better show the slope height. The street view lens is probably distorting the reality of the rock cut. Even though I've driven it dozens of times, that stretch never ceases to amaze me.

Why... Why does the article use imperial units...

But wow. It’s amazing that they blasted 80 m tall sedimentary rocks (2.3M m^3 in volume) and kept that hill stable.

Here is some news from the Kicking Horse Canyon Project.

The traffic lights at Field Visitor Center are fact. You can see them at www.drivebc.ca

http://ibb.co/wCGk1WX

We are talking about after the highway is upgraded.

I was thinking the same but they already installed them. Check here on the highway cameras: http://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwayca...l/dbc/142.html

Copied from Vibrant Victoria forum


Greater Victoria residents have until March 24 to comment on plans to improve Highway 17 northbound at Keating Cross Road where plans call for a new “flyover”overpass.

The overpass would eliminate left turns across highway traffic onto Keating Cross Road and East Saanich Road for northbound traffic heading west. Plans also call for a realigned southbound on-ramp to Victoria from Keating Cross Road, new bus-on-shoulder facilities supporting long-term plans for bus rapid transit on Highway 17 and the widening of Keating Cross Road (between highway ramps to Central Saanich Road) to accommodate pedestrians, among other changes.

https://www.vicnews.com/news/public-...ntral-saanich/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5NhgKGCld0

KH Phase 4^

Looks like some slope stabilization and vegetation clearing work is going on right now.

Has anyone pass through Kicking Horse after the month long closure?

Does it look much different?

I have seen some pictures. Apparently the other set of lanes is taking shape in some places.

Yes, they have a Facebook page.

Drove this last night. Not much in terms of the road itself is different, but the amount of equipment on site, especially the crawler cranes.

The facebook page shows quite a bit of work already done. There was a mud slide on the site last week but other than that it looks like they are moving ahead.

Most of the widening is happening off the edge of the cliff with new retaining walls or viaducts. There's just a few spots where they would've blasted into the mountain to widen the highway that way.

The point I was trying to make is not much of the work is visible from the highway itself.

The Facebook site is really nice. The project team is doing an excellent job of capturing the work as they progress.

Does anyone have the link? I struggled to find it on Facebook. Thanks.

https://www.facebook.com/kickinghorsecanyon

Here you go.

Very nice. Thanks.
I didn’t know it was just named “kicking horse canyon phase 4”. I searched for the name of the contractor to no avail.

Drove out to Vancouver Island from Calgary & back - here are some of my observations & comments regarding the TCH in BC:

- Seems the most recent 4-laned sections do not include median barriers, this is concerning. One section had upright reflectors in the median (but no barrier) - WTF ?
- The main intersection in Revelstoke is a joke and an accident waiting to happen. Looks like a traffic circle was built to try and improve things rather than doing it properly with an interchange.
- BC highway standards appear to have deteriorated over time. Older twinned sections include a grass median where possible and concrete barriers where a median is not possible (the Coquihalla for example). Later twinned sections eliminated grass medians but have concrete barriers. And as mentioned, some of the most recent sections have no barrier.
- Also, newer twinned sections do not include a 3rd lane for trucks to use as a climbing lane on steep grades.
- The TCH east of Vancouver needs to be expanded from the current 2 lanes each direction as it's been like that since at least the 1970s. 3 lanes each direction out to Chilliwack would be nice.
- It seems 4-laning west of Golden for about 45kms would be pretty simple and inexpensive (by BC standards). Wish they would tackle this low hanging fruit and get a decent chunk done at once.
- I can confirm a traffic signal has been added to the TCH at Field. Unfortunate that we're still adding lights to the TCH. :(

On the Island:
- Was surprised the TCH entering Victoria from the north reduces from 4 lanes to 3 (or 2) lanes. I thought the highway would get wider (not narrower) entering the largest city on the island.
- The rest of the TCH between Victoria & Nanaimo (as far as I went) was 4 lanes but was littered with traffic lights (a very BCey thing to do).

My intent is not to pick on BC. I really wish national highways were a much higher priority for the Federal Government. IMO the Feds should be developing minimum standards for a system of TC Highways and dictating those standards as well as footing 90% of the bill for upgrading these highways.

I think the best I can hope for before I leave this life is for a TCH in BC that is continuously 4-laned from the west to Salmon Arm, and from the east to the Glacier Park east boundary. That would leave from Salmon Arm to the east Glacier Park boundary to 4-lane. I think an alternate route will need to be found for the 3-Valley Gap section.

Anyway - this has all been discussed before, just had to vent - thanks all. :cheers:

The 2km section west of the Golden commercial vehicle inspection station? There might be some 4 laned sections within National Parks as well but I can't recall. It's not in the works to upgrade TCH to a freeway, just a twinned highway with interchanges if warranted. It's no worse than all the unprotected intersections on Hwy 16 in Alberta, even on Hwy 2 between Edmonton and Calgary. Hwy 2 is baffling, just close those intersections and force drivers to drive 5km north or south to the next interchange then up the speed limit to 120 km/h in the summer.

An new alignment for TCH has been discussed for between Revelstoke to Craigellachie which is likely why there have been no desire to spend beyond the bare minimum on that stretch including that intersection in Revelstoke. Oh there is a short 4 lane section on that stretch without median barriers as well. I think they treated it as concurrent passing lanes in both directions.

The traffic light at Field is under Federal jurisdiction, I don't think we can trust the Feds to implement a standard for the national highway. :haha:

Just a few tidbits for your observations:

100% agree on the lack of median barriers, but I have heard that they are / will be added to most (all?) of the twinned portions.

Aso agree on the need for more interchanges to be built as part of twinning projects (protected Ts are okay at the more rural / barely used local access points).

I would also like to see at least the flat west of Golden section done a single large project.

The TCH in the Valley from 216th street to Whatcom Road in Abbotsford will be expanded to 6 lanes (but they will be HOV lanes). This will also include rebuilding older overpasses and the 232nd and 264th interchanges (and likely the Sumas interchange as well). I believe phase one of this project starts this year or next. It will be two phases.

Not much I can say about the #1 on the Island. Though I would rather see the 17 upgraded to freeway standards first.

The Field traffic light is 100% the doing of the federal government.

And yes, Canada’s lack of a true federal Highway program / system is head scratching to say the least.

Fixed that for ya. Having three westbound highways (1, 3 & 5) empty down to two lanes is sheer lunacy and results in some pretty aggressive driving as people get impatient with the volume.

I wonder - has the BC highway's budget gone down? I bet it hasn't. As far as I have observed, what BC builds is generally of good construction, they just have a huge amount of very expensive roads. It's easy to throw shade at them for Highway 1 being so crap as soon as you cross the border, but budgets are inherently limited. If they make every road a full freeway, it just will mean less gets built every year. Eventually getting a fully four laned TCH in 20 years is preferable to a quarter being full freeway and the rest un-upgraded shit.

I agree. I’m not suggesting the TCH needs to be full freeway standard, just 4 lanes with climbing lanes where grades are steep, a center median or barrier, and the elimination of traffic lights.
Even upgrading to this minimum standard is going to take a lot longer than 20 years given the lack of attention to the TCH by governments.

https://www.bclocalnews.com/news/aug...ast-of-golden/
Key part: No closure during August long weekend :D

I disagree with the bolded part. They chip away at this every single year.

My last trip through I noticed that they have been working on the Chase bypass, a new chain up area between Revy and Rogers pass including 4 lanes, started clearing for 4 laning at Quartz Creek, in addition to starting on phase 4 at Kicking Horse.

That's a lot of money they are spending.

Granted the traffic signal at Field is a step backwards, but I've yet to stop there in four trips though so far. (I blame the feds for this)

Hey DoubleK,
You might find this site interesting:
http://https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation-projects/highway1-kamloops-alberta

In fact on the subject of TCH four laning they just announced another 4.3km today: https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2021TRAN0112-001414

For what it is worth they do seem to have targeted some of the relatively more difficult and expensive portions to upgrade first, often involving major bridge replacements.

There is 337 km of highway under BCMOT juridisction from Kamloops to the Alberta border. 118 of it is already twinned or better or 35%. There is a total of 24 km of twinning work being done right now (5km Chase, the recently announced 4km in Tappen, 3km Salmon Arm, 2km RW Bruhn Bridge, 2km Illecillewaet, 4 km Quartz Creek Bridge, 4km Kicking Horse Canyon). In a couple of years when that's all done, 42.1% of Hwy 1 under BCMOT jurisdiction will have been twinned. Not bad progress at all I'd say. If we can knock off at least 5% or 17km every 2 years after this, we will be done by 2045. This 40 year plan was announced around 2010?

^Thanks for the breakdown Dkaz, if BC is done the entire portion under their jurisdiction by 2045 I will eat my hat.
They have definitely ramped things up over the last 10 years but the fact the TCH is in it’s current state in 2021 is embarrassing.

Yeah Baby!!

Yeah - I like that they include a few kms of 4 laning when they replace bridges.

The new RW Bruhn Bridge project in Sicamous looks pretty good.

It includes an interchange on the west approach (though it isn't referred to as an interchange, right in and outs on both sides with acceleration and deceleration lanes connected by an underpass is in interchange in my books).

the two intersections on the east side of the bridge are also being upgraded and involve no traffic lights. As long as there are no traffic lights I am generally fine now for the TCH.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0e9eb93a_h.jpgEE40C227-F518-41FB-8D11-4E58D436102E by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...17a7054d_h.jpgF49C246F-6B92-4A13-8FC4-183314465464 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...56b9241a_h.jpg90211E0B-FD40-4935-80E6-F278F148C859 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6ef81df6_h.jpg8D46B61D-F15D-4525-BD3E-C6F43DC324B7 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...7a42d975_h.jpg15D2F8D9-1D6F-4798-A479-63E0BEAAFA8C by Ian, on Flickr

Apparently pre construction starts this year, and major construction starts next year.

For what it’s worth, it’s mostly controlled-access too. :yes:
Now I’ll be curious whether CN or CP will use this chance to twin the tracks too. Usually one just sees a line of cargo trains parked for the road construction (i.e. Chase).

If the economics were there to twin the tracks, it would be done regardless of the highway construction.

That's what they're trying to do when twinning Hwy 1, consolidate or remove access points.

If there is one section that really needs to turn into a freeway is the 4.5 km section in east Kamloops.

Ford Road to Tappen Valley project!

Looks good

Median Barriers ;)

Going from the northwest end to the southeast end.

I do like that all the upgrades involve frontage roads.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...637fa27f_b.jpg83528AF9-AFCD-4E90-8185-83B3726B9E82 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e25af199_b.jpg9F54336B-3580-4703-9F03-AA4290FED287 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...9d7a2b4d_b.jpg280DDFC8-A9E8-4BEE-A159-3B11F8410B03 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...55a4d18b_b.jpg6B349F7F-8695-41AE-B047-5B87008B8454 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...47bc6c4e_b.jpgC94C882B-D910-47D7-B480-C0ED249D0591 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a0847cff_b.jpg1DEE4648-FAE9-442F-9529-1923F96F6D68 by Ian, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b32234cc_b.jpg224BB173-B5FB-4C77-A8CF-F0F356491F19 by Ian, on Flickr

For those of us who don't get the chance to drive out to golden/kicking horse often here's a youtube video that has some of the latest progress on phase 4:

https://youtu.be/5S03w_qkiVA?t=10808

It's awesome to see all the work that's going on! This stretch is going to be breathtaking once complete.