I know my parents were so happy when Rona opened up.

Don't need lines, law of the sea applies... Stick to the right and yield to larger vehicles. You'll be fine! :cheers:

Seems like a "douchebaggy" Vancouverite is commenting here. One who likely thinks the only important roads are in Vancouver. There is no need to resort to name calling (even though I returned the favor). It's pretty obvious by the press how isolationist BC is becoming - especially towards Canada. I don't like it one bit since I love BC. And I know interior BC politicians don't like it either. My trucker friend in Sicamous absolutely hates the highway (a motorcycle recently ran into his truck - the guy is in bad shape)

Lol, I've driven a lot of third world roads lately - in some very out of the way countries and YES - BC does have 3rd world roads. Often worse than 3rd world in some areas. (cough khc cough) Give me a break here. The trans-canada highway in most of BC, except for the last few years was ignored by BC since it opened in the 1950's. They're twinning the highway in Tanzania and repaving in Zimbabwe to crying out loud. Madagascar was smooth clear sailing (although scarily narrow). Russia - isn't 3rd world (I may be wrong on that, but they're 2nd world).

Most of the bridge replacements are because the bridges have reached the end of their 50 year lifespan. The BC government freely admits they were sometimes not even built to 1950's standards. And they freely point out how dangerous the roads are that they're fixing. Check out the website. They include death statistics and mention it as a reason for upgrading.

I'm not talking about every road in BC. Some are nice. Some are awful - which you'll find in pretty much every area of the world. But I'm complaining about the #1 highway in Canada. The highway the BC transportation website refers to as Main Street Canada. The main link to the rest of the country if you will. Personally, the KHC is cool and the money spent on it so far is enough for now. The money should be spent on other sections first in my humble opinion.

The sections they have fixed are great. I realize it's super expensive to build in the mountains. We can't keep using the "we're a big country" excuse to not build our country. If some of the people here were around during the railroad days they'd still be waiting for the CP in Vancouver. The big issue is that the problems were ignored so long that the task ahead is monumental. If they had slowly done upgrades over several decades they'd be miles ahead. But pretty much nothing was done. The death count and accident statistics grew. The economy suffered. The road is closed an unacceptable number of days each year. Then someone woke up.

This douchbaggy Albertan (I've lived in BC too) got a little frustrated when a 6 hour drive turned into 12 hours - much of it a parking lot. Sorry about the whining. I guess you can tell the family of the 34 year old that was killed that the roads are safe. No center barrier on new sections - and lots of head-on's - but safe in your opinion.

Try not to let a few ignorant people spoil it. A lot of people in BC are nice and love tourists.

They've even removed those silly anti-tourist parking fees in BC parks. I remember standing in a parking lot at thanksgiving. Two or three cars in a huge empty lot. 5 BC parks people standing there - yelling "don't forget to pay for parking". Hilarious. But sad. BC is becoming another Quebec. Lots of nice people, but the bad apples and rudeness to their fellow countrymen gives the whole place a bad name.

BC Highways have come so far in the 4-5 years since i moved to BC the first time. Obviously a lot of work yet to be done, but the topography and low population helps determine it.

Priorities should be the continual 4-laning of Highway 1 east of Kamloops, upgrading Highway 1 east of the Gateway Program into Chilliwack, and general safety improvements (more passing lanes, better geometry around corners) on most highways where it is feasible to do so.

Whats the difference between rudeness to fellow canadians outside of your province, to rudeness to everyone in general...Edmonton is by far the rudest city I have ever been to. And I`ve been to quite a few American cities ..

Not really a construction post, but some photos along BC highways. :rolleyes:

Duffey Lake along BC-99 (Sea to Sky Highway) between Pemberton and Lillooet.
http://vuosiamaailmalla.fi/blog/wp-c..._panoraama.jpg

Almost 3000 meters tall mountains along BC-99 (Sea to Sky Highway) just before Lillooet.
http://vuosiamaailmalla.fi/blog/wp-c..._panoraama.jpg

Fraser River valley along BC-12 between Lillooet and Lytton.
http://vuosiamaailmalla.fi/blog/wp-c..._panoraama.jpg

Moro photos in here.

I'm sorry to hear that was your experience in Edmonton, but I'm really surprised to hear that. I've encountered rude people everywhere, but don't really find Edmonton to be worse than anywhere else. What happened to give you that impression?

I've found American's are less rude than Canadians (I work with a lot of American's and they're generally very friendly folks). I don't know about Edmonton - I've only been there a few times and never had a problem. A lot of people complain about Quebec where I work, and I know France has announced a campaign to be nicer to tourists. Seems like a French culture thing. Anyway, BC in general is ok, but you see a lot of anti-Alberta talk on websites (if that's any indication of the general population I don't know). I think a lot of BC'ers see Alberta as some polluted oil soaked mess - and assume everyone works in and loves the oil industry. Just like some people think BC is a forest clearcutting, raw sewage in the ocean type of place. Like all stereotypes there is some tiny truth - but it's mostly wrong.

On the topic of roads you hear a lot here from big city BC that assume the rest of the province is some backwoods unimportant empty space. And roads to Canada should be ignored because they're empty or just clogged with evil tourists. Forgetting the truckers, trade, and the huge importance of tourism to the BC economy. When the mayor of Revelstoke hears complaints from Europeans about the shocking state of roads in BC, and the main highway in BC is closed for several weeks a year then it's about time to start fixing it. BC needs to think of tourists as people who come and drop off a big pile of money then leave - since that's what tourists are - a huge source of income.

BC has made great progress. But like with Alberta highway upgrades - and I imagine highways in many parts of the world, progress is painfully slow. I don't quite understand it - given the economic and safety benefits you'd think politicians wouldn't ignore roads like they tend to do. Sadly they typically look for short term political gain rather than long term benefits for their area. There are some areas of the world where transportation and safety is a priority. The Romans and Mayans knew it was worth the cost.

As for tolls - I'm not the fence about that. I'd gladly pay a coq type toll - assuming it was removed when the road was paid for, but really people are paying tolls already. It's called a huge gasoline tax in BC. Tolls tend to hurt the poor, inconvenience the middle class, and really help the rich. Not particularly fair.

^ I've spent the majority of my life in the interior of BC. I can attest to the bad behaviour and arrogant, entitled attitudes that give Albertans a bad reputation in BC, espeically the Okanagan and shuswap areas. That's exactly why the family bought our recreational property in the Cariboo district. I see you are great at making sweeping generalizations, But I have lots of driving experience.. tonnes in fact, driving almost every highway from Creston to Chetwynd, a lot of it in a five tonne car carrier that I drove for a friends' company while in college. And that was in the early 90's.. things were worse back then. Maybe I am a much better driver than you, and I reiterate that the only time I hear smivelling about the roads is when some douchy Albertan wants to be albe to do 130 to his shack on the lake.

BC is not Alberta, road building is much more difficult and expensive. And at least in Alberta they don't do stupid things like allow at grade intersections on divided 4 lane freeways where the speed limit is 110 kph. And I couldn't give two shits if you don't like my attitude. It's people like you that give all Albertans a bad name in BC.

Does anyone know if there will be any construction at Kicking Horse Pass this year? Their website has not been updated for over a year now.

^I know, I keep checking that website for updates but it's gone quiet. This concerns me as I fear work on the other phases will go into hibernation for years now. And they had all that momentum going from phase to phase.
:(:???:

^ I think it will slow down unfortunately. I would expect that one piece of Phase 4 will be announced by 2014, but I can't see it as big of a priority as the initial phases. The safety concerns are the blanket for the government's real concern: time saving to provide economic benefits. There's simply more bang for buck in upgrading other segments along the highway.

I was disappointed to see that the date of completion for Monte Creek Phase II pushed back. Around the election time when I was driving to Kamloops it said fall 2014 completion, but the signs now read summer 2015, and little work has been started.

Phase I of Pritchard to Monte Creek is fully underway. Tree clearing in the alignment has mostly been completed, power lines are being relocated, and some initial earthwork on what will be the connecting roads has begun. One of these days I'll stop to take a few pics. Estimated completion time is summer 2014.

Repaving between Chase and Hoffman's Bluff is completed, along with the Neskolith intersection upgrade, which is making my ride a lot smoother I must say!

I'm not sure who this is directed to. Probably me. A property owner in BC who pays taxes and spends a lot of tourist dollars in BC. Someone who spends as much time in BC as I can.

I don't get your attitude. If someone complains about the roads in BC you take it as a personal attack - swear and insult every person in Alberta???:shrug:

I guess you might even have a plan - if people think BC residents are jerks I guess you're hoping there will be less traffic. If only you were that smart.

I guess someone from Alberta did you wrong once. Or you saw plates on an idiot driver and they were from Alberta. We all have stories of bad drivers from other areas - and yes there are lots of bad drivers in Alberta (and everywhere).

This is a roads forum. People are generally going to talk about bad areas. Get over it. BC is way behind. It's because they've (politicians) ignored the transcanada highway since it was built - at least through most of the interior. There has been some great progress, but read the government website. They openly state that many of the places they're targeting for repairs are extremely dangerous and they're way behind other provinces. And they also mention roads are economically important - even ones that you don't use. They even have death counts. So pout all you want - BC has not done enough and is far behind. And it's not just Albertan's that think that. It's people from BC, Australia, Hong Kong, and Europe that I know. Some won't even go to BC because of the KCH (personally I think it's cool there - and the bad part isn't so bad now since at least it's short)

It's not like Alberta is any kind of road paradise. There are plenty of badly needed roadworks that are also ignored for decades as the body count piles up. But since this is a BC forum I'll focus on the douchbaggy (your favorite word) parts of the BC road system.

Gotta love the last photo they posted. It looks like the 2 guys are going to get squished.

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/kickinghorse/khc_updates.htm

I think they might still be working on the 4 km wall (don't get excited - the 4 km wall is only 1.2 km long). Interesting naming choice :haha:

The big projects we're all hoping for are awaiting federal funding. Politicians like their photo ops so if it's anything like the Alberta twinning they'll be announcing things over an over when they finally do decide. I'm not sure when that'll be though - since it's such an expensive project, and of course they're also asking the Feds to twin the parks. Maybe the feds are awaiting provincial funding for those areas :haha: And then there's the other something like 300 km to go.

At least BC announced funding for a decade. It won't put much of a dent in it, but it's better than nothing.

A couple of points regarding the KHC section of Hwy 1.

1. After the recent May 14 election, new BC MoTI minister Todd Stone was interviewed by the Journal of Commerce on July 3 and confirms that he was given a mandate letter stating the priorities of the ministry and the KHC is in the top 3:

http://www.journalofcommerce.com/art...ildingenvelope

2. The fed's new, 10-year, $58 Building Canada Fund was announced in ~June and will likely be the source to provide 50 -50 funding for different stages of Phase 4 as we move forward.

Am not familiar with the bureaucracy behind the new Building Canada Fund, but I suspect that a new section of the KHC within phase 4 will be announced either later this fall or next spring at the latest - also suspect that things will proceed in this manner over the coming years until the remaining ~4 km is completed.

^Thanks for the info Stingray. I guess we'll just watch for the announcements.

BC MoTI press release from today:

http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2013/0...rovements.html

Just got back from a Kamloops to Alberta border trip. From what I remember this is a list of the construction activity in BC along this route that they claim to be twinning:

1.
2.
3.

That's right - pretty much nothing being done at all.

There were a few short single lane sections that were repaved, and someone was nice enough to add "bump" signs in some of the worst sections. But even the KHC short little "4 km" project (which is 1 km long) looks like it's abandoned. I realize we're in "the between period" though. That's the period where politicians like to look like something is being done, and the long "design" stage where apparently nothing is done. As a result, we never see new projects done until 4-6 years after they completed old ones. They're really keeping up with the snails pace. New signs and website though - if you call that progress. (taxpayers I guess needed new signs and new websites to replace the old inadequate ones lol, but if history repeats itself there will be little to know updates).

There is some minor construction in Salmon Arm - near where they announced a new project (a new project that apparently ignores the extremely narrow bridge that needs to be replaced). But for now I think it's just local construction getting utilities in place for the new Waly-Mart rather than the twinning project which is still in its multi-year design phase (flat land, nothing in the way, easy terrain, long design process lol). Even when that's doubled it's not a big project. There might also be a few feet of construction into Yoho on the Banff side, but I can't tell because the border marking is gone. They recently finished repairing the Yoho bridges that were in danger of collapse so that's a good indication there is no intention to twin the highway near Field anytime soon.

I confirmed that Craigellachie is actually only single lane in the two bridges in the area where BC marked the project complete on the new website. Seems they replaced an old bridge at the end of it's life with a new single lane bridge and they consider that twinned??? They're forgetting 1 lane in each direction isn't "twinned", and of course the second very narrow bridge in that area is also 1 lane.

KHC is nice on the sections that are done, but the 100 km design speed seems a bit fast for some areas around the big bridge. I hate to say it but 90 kph makes more sense there. Sure, it's one of the few places worthy of a center median but the turns are sharp, the shoulders are narrow, and it's still pretty steep - enough to get an inexperienced driver in trouble at 100k. Perhaps just a recommended 90 k would be safer.

Donald and Clanwilliam are great now (but sadly very little roadway is doubled as a result, and the BC government is ignoring the serious safety issues by not putting in center barriers or medians on new sections - Clanwilliam only has them over the bridge, Donald doesn't even have them at all).

My guess for all the foot dragging is perhaps they're waiting word from the feds on funding help (which may never come)? I thought BC brought in a big gasoline tax to help pay for roadworks? In any case the prices of gasoline along the route are in full gouge mode - 30+ cents higher in some areas than others. Repeat tourists & truckers know which towns to avoid.

If they were on the ball designs and funding requests would be made well ahead of time so we don't have 5 year waits on projects that only take 2 years to complete. But politicians like the waits so they can make announcements when it's politically adventitious. Ideally we wouldn't have years where nothing is done and then years with multiple projects and disruptions. I really feel for the truckers and interior BC folks.

The TCH highway closures barely make the news anymore. I talked to a trucker and he said the backup on the August 3rd weekend was the worst he's seen in 30 years of running from BC to Alberta. This was a week after the 8 hr highway closure. I guess he was returning to BC and the traffic was backed up from Golden all the way to Lake Louise. Unfortunately he was stuck in it and unable to take the 7 hr extra detour.

What struck me is the number of easy sections that are still single lane. Ones that should have been done say 30-40 years ago. Some of the new sections they announced near Kamloops I was imagining some difficult dangerous roadway. Turns out that rather than Chase/Golden type terrain, it's mostly Saskatchewan class. You see that all along the drive - easy places to at least build cheap passing lanes, but there is nothing. The excuse some people have given about how difficult it is to build in BC really shows that it's just an excuse, not a reality. If it was really the issue the easy congested sections would be been done years ago. Oh well, minor progress from time to time is much better than the old method of virtually no progress.

^ I think the message on median barriers has finally sunk in because most of the projects currently announced are proposed to have them. I agree that it is snail's pace in general however.

The widening to four lanes between 10 and 30 St SW in Salmon Arm is underway to coincide with Walmart's opening in November, but it looks like only the more westerly portion is being worked on at the moment. The wait times have been pretty frustrating with all the holiday traffic right now.

I guess I'm just happy that the sections that are currently underway are between Salmon Arm and Kamloops, the main part of the highway I use lol

Has a Salmon Arm by-pass ever been considered?
I'm really starting to doubt I'll see the TCH twinned through BC in my lifetime.:brickwall:

For fuck sakes, it is Yahoo's periodic post again, and again everyone falls for it, and again he fails to realize everything explained to him the last time he posted a huge rant.

Yahoo, instead of doing this every few months please just go back read you previous rant, and read all the responses to it over the last few pages of this thread.

But or fun, here is quick summary:

Huge portions of the TCH between Kamloops and Alberta are federal, not provincial.

Building highways in BC is insanely expensive compared to Alberta for various geographical and geological reasons.

BC is not linear, we have many other important highways than just the TCH to improve upon, and have been doing so (quick examples are the Cariboo Connecter 4 lanning project to Prince George, the Okanagan corridor 4 lanning projects which are insanely expensive being built along cliffs over hanging lakes)

BC has no major population centers east of Salmon Arm, hence connections between Kamloops / Okanagan / Lower Mainland / Vancouver Island / and now Prince George take priority.

BC is criss-crossed with huge rivers / lakes not found in Alberta, and big bridges are very expensive, and many have recently been built.

I could go on, but it is pointless.

All I can say is my trips to Kamloops this summer have been a breeze from Vancouver with nice freeways the entire length ;)

It is also nice to see all the twinning action in the Cariboo to where my parents live near 100 mile ;)

And to answer Craner's question, yes a by-pass has been toyed with in the past, but it would involve a very long bridge over the lake. Therefore it would be very expensive, also the city of Salmon Arm would probably be against it as would environmentalists, etc...

^ He'll never be happy until he can get to his little shack on Shuswap in 3.5 hours. That's all he really cares about. Should'a bought in Windermere I guess :haha:


In other highway news, Got back from my big BC tour, a few notable highway related items.

- NW Stoney Trail around Calgary is awesome! 20 minutes, done. No screwing around at all. SOOOO happy that there is proper Calgary bypass, too bad the SW portion is still so up in the air.

Kootenay Parkway still a nice drive, but lots of SLOOWWW drivers and dirtbags who want to go 140+, few passing opportunities making it a very confrontational highway. It seems to have gotten worse in the past few years

All highways in the Kootenays seem to be the same as always, Hwy 6 from Nakusp to Fauquier is really really rough (badly heaved) and if anyone actually wants to see what a piece of highway worth complaining about looks like, take the Monashee pass. Wow.. my partner who's born & bred Albertan was starting to turn green on the stretch west from Needles. I had fun though.

THey are just about ready to open the new section of 97 above Woods lake, they were painting lines as we went through. Kelowna congestion is as bad as I have ever seen it. Rolling in at OUC, traffic basically stopped, adnd it stayed that way all the way to the bridge. Traffic going in the other direction was backed up for miles.. it's exactly the same as it was when the old floating bridge used to be there. Just goes to show that upgrading road capacity is somewhat futile, as traffic will always grow to fill it. Decided to take Westside road back to Vernon from Westbank.. always a fun & pleasant drive.

Construction south of 70 mile wasn't too bad and didn't have to stop, just slow down.

Highway 5 from Little Fort to the 5/16 interchange is usually an easy drive as the traffic is moderate and there's tonnes of passing but this past weekend it was packed, making for a very slow trip. Saw three crashes involving travel trailers. a new passing stretch was completed at Blue River, but the road could usa a few more

See I got lotsa feathers ruffled here by the regulars. Hopefully some of them are with some people who can actually do something about the sad state of the road.

I guess they don't understand that people have opinions that don't necessarily agree with yours. And that discussing the problem once isn't enough.

I repeat myself, because people pick and choose and ignore the reality when they comment, and believe it or not people don't always go back and read every old comment. If you don't like my comments skip them. Personally I love reading comments - even negative ones about me.

I know huge portions are federal. That's why I comment about the national park areas. I know the terrain is difficult, that's why I mention things not being done in areas even where the terrain isn't difficult. I know it's costly, and comment about how the inaction is what lead to the mess and how you could save money if you actually did something instead of talk about it.

What are some of you people - politicians? You think posting a sign saying you'll upgrade the highway with no information, then posting new signs 5 years later is progress? :shrug: Read the own BC gov website and you'll hear honest opinions about the issues.

This is a comment forum, and that's what I'm doing. Relating experiences and comments. The road is bad for the BC economy, bad for tourism (which BC spends a fortune on advertizing for), and it's frigging dangerous. Talk to the family of the guy in Revelstoke that died 2 weeks ago. Talk to the people stuck on the highway for 8 hours or about the highway closures that frustrate local politicians. This isn't about driving to Shuswap you shmuck. I think it's about how hostile BC people are becoming to Albertans. I don't know what it is - jealousy? Believe me, there is no reason to be jealous of Alberta - the roads in Alberta are not great and like BC upgrades occur at a snails pace. (Alberta snails are slightly faster though). And the last section being done in Banff is Federal you see - not provincial. But for some reason BC hasn't been pressuring the Feds to fix their parks like Alberta has. Heck, even environmentalists are on board now and agree that fixing Banff has been a big success for wildlife protection. (if you bother to read the Parks Canada info)

Whatever - I'll post when and if I chose - which is usually when I drive the road. If I state anything that's wrong please call me out on it. But I don't care or want to hear from people who aren't willing to discuss or listen. A twinned TCH in BC has huge economic benefits.

The roads in BC need work - and I appreciate that it's being done. But I'm not going to accept some politicians BS. If it wasn't BS we'd have ONE BLOODY TCH PROJECT UNDERWAY now wouldn't we? But of the what 20 km/300 km of new projects announced last year none are under construction. Not one.

DRIVE THE ROAD AND YOU'LL SEE THAT THIS ENTIRE CONSTRUCTION SEASON IS BEING WASTED IN BC. Except for the sign installers I guess :-)

Yes, but I believe it involves an expensive bridge over the Shuswap so it'll likely never happen. Like with the potential Golden bypass I think you'd upset too many locals and businesses to ever do it.

I made about 6 trips through SA in the last couple weeks (visiting someone in the hospital) and I guess I was lucky, I never had to wait anymore than a typical light cycle.

Someday I'll retire in Salmon Arm, I love that little city. The upgrades they've done between there and Kamloops are pretty sweet - although some sections are still awaiting center barriers.

Sorry about all the posts - I have free time :-)

Would it make sense to award a continual design & build contract to complete the TCH twinning project in BC and give a budget of say $50M per year? (that's even less than they budgeted for).

The construction companies would have assured jobs, the cost wouldn't be excessive and there would be faster progress. Even for the last expensive KHC section they indicated it could be built in phases, so $50M/yr could work for the most part even on that section - especially when you know there will be another $50M the next year, and the next etc. I think some politicians just mention high costs to delay things, where if you spread it out and made continual reasonable budgets things could really happen.

Highway 6 has been like that for a long time. Give them some credit though...they're actually making changes near Lumby and did some paving this year. Once you get past the twisty stuff North of Fauquier the drive to Nakusp and on to Galena Bay is quite nice. Monashee Pass is very fun to drive! :)

You were driving through Kelowna at the busiest time of the year, so I wouldn't say that's a fair assessment of the traffic there. Even a couple weeks from now will be worlds different on Highway 97 through the City. The bridge has been a huge improvement to the area, though it may not be apparent during the peak tourist season.

Update on the Winfield to Oyama section of Hwy 97:

Looks like it has now been virtually completely line-striped as well as all barrier installed. Wouldn`t be surprised now to see it open within the next day or two:

North End facing north:

http://wcs.pbaeng.com/httphandlers/i...6796&mode=prev

North End facing south:

http://wcs.pbaeng.com/httphandlers/i...7061&mode=prev

South End facing north:

http://wcs.pbaeng.com/httphandlers/i...7006&mode=prev

http://wcs.pbaeng.com/httphandlers/i...7138&mode=prev

Facing South

http://wcs.pbaeng.com/httphandlers/i...6072&mode=prev

Facing North:

http://wcs.pbaeng.com/httphandlers/i...6094&mode=prev

^ Very Nice !

The new alignment of hwy 97 between Winfield and Oyama is now open!

Fair to say that I am intimately familiar with the area... lived in Vernon from '75-99 ;)

I don't think Monashee pass has ever changed as long as I can remember. They added the 4 lane stretch close to Needles about 15 years ago but that's pretty much it.


As for the bridge.. I don't think that it's made a huge difference really. I don't think I've ever seen it backed up that bad. Granted, back in the day when one directino was cut down to one lane it was sometimes equally as backed up as it is now. The floating bridge was never that big an issue in off-peak either

Another TCH closure in BC for many hours. Interesting how the police blame the driver for losing control and causing a head on accident. No doubt true, but they forget the seriousness of the accident might have been minor if the road was built to modern safety standards (twinned and divided). There was a similar crash on the Coq last winter that had a much better outcome because of the barriers on that highway. The economic impact in this case wasn't mentioned. At least the BC twinning website isn't afraid to admit that roadway design contributes to accidents - even if police won't. (I even saw a police caused accident in BC - a minivan rolled when a cop ran out to stop it from speeding)

http://www.revelstoketimesreview.com...220050651.html

Reminds me of a roadway in Calgary. After the second head on collision on a roadway (Sarcee Trail) killed another person they finally decided to put up barriers. The police also blamed the drivers in that case - not the fact that the high speed curve had no barriers. Little comfort for the innocents involved I'm sure.

Roadway designs should do as much as possible to protect people from boneheads, mechanical failures, bad weather, medical conditions and distracted drivers. We'll never have perfection - until perhaps cars drive themselves, but simple safety features like barriers are easy enough.

Fair to say that I am intimately familiar with the area... lived in Vernon from '75-99 ;)

I don't think Monashee pass has ever changed as long as I can remember. They added the 4 lane stretch close to Needles about 15 years ago but that's pretty much it.


As for the bridge.. I don't think that it's made a huge difference really. I don't think I've ever seen it backed up that bad. Granted, back in the day when one directino was cut down to one lane it was sometimes equally as backed up as it is now. The floating bridge was never that big an issue in off-peak either

Edit: Disregard my "Status: Completed" message in italics below. The webmaster just removed the message since the project isn't completed. Just a mistake on their part.


This site indicates the last project on phase 3 of the KHC status as completed. Odd, since I don't think it is.

2 weeks ago it looked like there was a lot of work left but no workers or equipment there (I assumed perhaps they were waiting for a pour to dry or something).

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/tranprojects...tails&id=22592

Note the listed "project benefits".

I drove the bridge on a daily basis for years and believe, it made a huge difference. I won't forget sitting on Harvey as traffic crawled towards the bridge (two lanes heading out of Kelowna even) with no air conditioning in my first car and wishing I was elsewhere. Happened every day for months in the summer. The backups are much less severe. Once in a blue moon will it back up to Ethel or Gordon now, and Ethel was pretty normal in the summer!

Off-peaks were problematic too. I can remember crawling down bridge hill on a Sunday morning pretty regularly. Guess all the church goers clogged up the bridge. Winter however, was never too much of an issue, but that goes for almost everywhere in the Okanagan for traffic.

New Update on the KHC Project website. I think it is the final part of Phase 3 in KHC.

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/kickinghorse/khc_updates.htm

"August 22, 2013
Project Update

4 Kilometre Grading, Paving and Finishing
GOLDEN - Dawson Construction Limited was awarded a contract in July 2013 to complete the remaining roadworks on the Trans Canada Highway four kilometres east of Golden. Work includes grading, paving, drainage, barrier placement and wildlife exclusion fencing. Construction began mid-August and will be finished later this year."

Hopefully they'll break the expensive Phase 4 of the project up into smaller chunks over the winter and complete some of the design work so it's ready to start when funding becomes available. It would be nice if they could start on some of the pieces - and I'm sure the local construction companies would appreciate the work. If they look to get funding for doing the last section all at once I imagine it'll be a long wait due to the huge cost to do it in 1 project.

Kicking Horse Canyon Project
 

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/kickinghorse/khc_updates.htm

August 22, 2013

Project Update
4 Kilometre Grading, Paving and Finishing

GOLDEN - Dawson Construction Limited was awarded a contract in July 2013 to complete the remaining roadworks on the Trans Canada Highway four kilometres east of Golden. Work includes grading, paving, drainage, barrier placement and wildlife exclusion fencing. Construction began mid-August and will be finished later this year.


Definitely a minor update, but it's the first time anything has been posted on the website in a very long time. Hopefully further work is announced this year.

Amen to that.

A new KHC photo was added today...

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/kickinghorse/khc_updates.htm

Looks like a slight trickle of water could wash all those hill sides away

Some more recent shots of the Winfield to Oyama section of Hwy 97:

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5505/9...afaf864f_b.jpg

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Awesome!
So nice, new, & Black.

Wow, if I didn't regret selling my roadster before today, I certainly do now.

Looks fantastic! This must cut down the travel time between Vernon and Kelowna quite a bit.

Grasping at straws are we on this one? It really is impossible for you to say anything positive regarding any highway or bridge project in BC isn't it?

^ I bet under nominal conditions it saves a few minutes at best.

What it will save is the numerous accidents that happen on that narrow stretch alongside Wood lake.

Worked as a wrecker operator through college at OUC.. pulled more than a few unfortunate souls out of that lake in the mid '90's

That's a fair assessment. People were already doing 90-100 in the old section - the only time most did the speed limit was when it was congested. Say you're doing 120 vs. 80 over 9km you're saving 4.5 minutes, but most did more on the old segment so it's 2-3 minutes at best.

Show me a Vernon bypass, that'll save a lot more.

Drove the KHC last week. They have a sign "Construction starting Sept 3 - expect lane closures" in the middle of the completed section east of the big bridge. Strange - it's all completely twinned there until Yoho so I'm not sure what they'd be doing. Perhaps more animal overpasses for the Big Horn/Cougar population that lives all along there?

The last 1.2 km section of phase 3 is showing a lot of construction activity. It certainly seems like the retaining wall isn't complete yet. It's strange how the website implied Tercon Construction" would finish it - but then there was very little work done and it recently switched to Dawson Construction. You have to wonder what happened. Anyway, at least we're finally seeing some progress in wrapping up phase 3. Once that's done then hopefully they'll start baby steps with phase 4 without the typical 5 year delay between announcements. Doing phase 4 in small reasonably priced sections makes a lot of sense unless a big bag of money becomes available.

It looks like the roadway collapsed in Yoho by the spiral tunnels tourist stop. One lane there is gone for a short ways. There are a few loaders down the cliff-side making what looks to be emergency repairs. (Yikes - brave operators!) We can only hope the hill down to Field is twinned soon. They spent a lot of time doing emergency repairs on the bridges over the last few years, but the whole section of road is in very poor state. Seems best to just twin it rather than patch it, although so far I haven't heard anything but speculation indicating the Feds ever intend to twin it.

Lowering the speed limit to 70 by the tunnels is absurd given that it's a passing lane and nobody pays any attention to the speed reduction because they're trying to overtake the slow moving vehicles at that point. The tourist traffic there never seems to cause issues with the road there - it's way safer than many rest stops where the TCH speed limit isn't reduced. One silly change they just made west of Field is slow the road down to 70 way before Field. Again - absurd and ignored by all. You're driving along doing 90 and suddenly the road changes to 70 for no reason at all - miles from town now. Contrast that with the eastbound 60 kph drop by Revelstoke that comes without warning. Traffic often comes to a screeching halt well before the speed reduction due to the strange traffic light just before the bridge. Speed limit signs need to make sense or they just increase danger - yet all through BC on the TCH they have some head scratching speed decisions.

Likewise they have a tiny roadway detour by the ever present mudslide area by Heather Hill. I couldn't tell what they're doing, but there always seems to be equipment there - likely trying to figure out a way to keep the mud off the highway. There was an overturned semi right at the site. Looks like he took the detour too fast and ended up in the ditch on a sharp turn. The cab looked okay so hopefully the driver wasn't hurt too bad.

The short Yoho Twinning by Banff (~ 0.5km?) is almost done now and looks almost ready for pavement. Too bad they didn't go a bit farther since it seems like there are a least a km or 2 that would have been an easy build (easier than the nearby Banff section anyway). Man, I hope when BC puts their welcome sign back up they leave off "the best place on earth" or whatever it was. That just comes off wrong to visitors and sounds arrogant.

A lot of badly needed paving has been done in the parks. The BC transportation website has a whole article explaining how much cheaper it is to maintain a road surface every 4 years rather than delaying repairs. They need to pass that info on to the folks are Parks Canada since they let the roads degrade pretty badly before patching them.

Construction by Pritchard is finally underway again. Odd that they lost most of the construction season before starting work. Perhaps that had more to do with the contractor than the gov?

Salmon Arm looks to be wrapping up the utility construction on the west side of town. One hopes it was done with anticipating the upcoming twinning. It really seems like they should have fast tracked the twinning to do it all at once. It's pretty flat and obvious what to twin. I hope they bury the power lines along there. Salmon Arm has such a pretty TCH roadway for much of it one would hope they don't just make an eyesore of the rest of it. As my sister in Fernie pointed out, too many BC towns have junk piles and eyesores at the edges of their towns. (It happens everywhere - but in BC where the scenery is so nice it really sticks out).

Driving BC you really wonder why we don't build more deceleration or merge lanes along the highway. At some points the entire road stops when someone wants to turn into Tim Hortons, or the Enchanted forest. Really unsafe and relatively cheap to correct in most places. Sometimes a quick safety fix is in order rather than waiting decades for true upgrades to occur.

Is it impossible for Metro-One not to attack people who have a negative comment like Libtard had? Even though I happen to agree with Metro-one on this one, Libtard was simply making an observation about how it looked. Don't take it personally, sometimes brand new roadways have defects, and sometimes people have valid criticisms and negative observations about roads in BC. He (she?) posted some pretty sweet pictures so quit whining every time someone comments negatively about "your" wonderful BC roads.

They had to do emergency repairs to the eastbound lanes approaching the big KHC bridge because of rocks falling on the roadway - a huge amount of rocks - after the project and rock protection was long completed. Other sections of the completed KHC are already in need of fixes. So it's not like new roads are always perfect.

ANOTHER semi rolled off the highway in the same spot today - stopping the TCH in both directions for more than an hour. Obviously the construction folks are at fault in this case. Poor/incorrect construction zone signage is a real problem in Alberta - and obviously in BC too. It's likely the experienced semi drivers made some assumptions that got them into trouble. The road is closed there so often they likely didn't realize the roadway was actually changed.

For those not familiar with Heather hill - huge mudslides started flowing onto the TCH there a few years ago. (Oddly, since they didn't in the past). So they are digging out the mud all the time now. (kind of like the serious rock slide areas - where instead of a fix, you just deal with the accidents and debris)

I wonder if BC has a website tracking the days and hours the highway is closed every year. It would be embarrassing - likely closed a month a year. No wonder the politicians are starting to slowly wake up to this issue. They really need to pressure the feds like in the old days. Didn't BC join confederation because of the railway? Don't they expect a working highway now connecting BC to southern Canada?