I don’t want this question to be ignored. Which one? The proposed replacement of the bridge leading into Sicamous? The ones leading into Yoho from Golden?

@nname IIRC that’s the only at-grade intersection in Banff National Park though. I’d suppose that, once the usage gets too high, Parks Canada has to build a service road from the nearby interchange and permanently close that intersection.

That's the biggest one, but there are other access to buildings, parking lots, trails, etc that are at-grade intersections.

What I wonder, and I imagine others might too, is why it seems that in the rest of the world tunneling actually appears to be the easier option, whereas our choice is always blasting channels through mountains. Yes we have found a way down Kicking Horse pass, but it is the most expensive piece of road in BC. If blasting is cheaper here, then it logically should be cheaper in Europe too, so why the difference? Are we just lucky enough to have routings that don't need tunnels, or maybe the geology of the rock is different?

When was the last time you drove through BNP? There really aren't many at all, although they get more frequent closer to Lake Louise, which is the point heading west where the road quality significantly worsens.

Could it be labour cost, not least because BC has mandated union wage again?

This one (Sicamous) with 5 lanes proposed, the new bridge in Kelowna with 5 lanes, the Lions Gate in Vancouver with 3 lanes, the Pitt River Bridge between Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows with 7 lanes... there are more I was looking at but can't recall right now. I get a 3 lane bridge on parts of the #1 or #3 where there are passing lanes included, but the others make no sense, just have it even.

Drove through? Never. But I went through there quite a few times, not as a driver though. I did pay very close attention to it by figuring out why it wasn't marked as "freeway" on my map west of Banff.

By quickly looking at streetview, I found 8 spots within Banff NP that's not up to freeway standard and allows left turns, plus numerous others right-in right-out access without proper acceleration/deceleration lanes. Basically all intersections with numbered highway or major town access road have interchange, and every other other ones does not, except for Sunshine Road.

Applying this same criteria, the only intersection in Yoho that would get an interchange would be Field Access Road, and maybe Emerald Lake Road. All other ones are comparable to those in Banff that are treated with left turn lanes.

That's fair. I don't particularly like grade intersections on new built divided highway, but IRT to the Great Divide Lodge not cheaping out would entail something pretty expensive which wouldn't really be worth it.

Good point, but I would be more satisfied with that logic if they were to actually use those savings to 4 lane more KMs in a single project.

All these 4 lanning projects (both provincial and federal) are always a few km at a time, and if they are over 10km in length they are phased over far too long periods. Look at Kicking Horse or the area between Kamloops and Chase. Both segments that reasonably could have been single projects.

The 40km being studied now to continue through Yoho Park for example should be a single phased project, or at most two 20km phases, where the second one starts before the first is complete or immediately afterwards.

For the remainder of Yoho Park, I actually wanna see it done in conjunction with a KHC “phase 6” (if “phase 5” is about converting the traffic lights and Highway 95 T-intersection into interchanges). As for tendering the construction, the max should be 15 km (according to the engineer in the Ontario subforum).

Another several hour long shutdown of the TCH due to a major accident at Three Valley Gap

https://www.vernonmorningstar.com/ne...icle-accident/

Yup. Costing the economy millions of dollars every year, but our governments cannot seem to get their heads around this and find the money to improve things.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...n-up-1.4944417

Question: On the right, it says "must carry tire chain". Does that mean both winter tires and chains are mandatory? (Or am I just reading too much into it?)

Just chains. It’s for large commercial vehicles

Are winter tires redundant if chains are on?? I'm curious because I've never chained my vehicle (because in Ontario it's only permitted in the north).

No kidding - what an absolute joke. :hell:

Large commercial vehicles don’t run winter tires. They’re required to carry chains so that they can navigate roads in winter conditions. Generally there are signals at key points such as the start of the Coquihalla that tell drivers when they need to chain up.

Passenger vehicles should really never require chains if they’re running good tires. There are exceptions in the mountainous regions in BC. When I lived in Nelson in the winter you’d see the police cars and ambulances running cable chains when it snowed

I hear you, but 1 lane is for local traffic from the west side. The 5 lane option was better than the one 4 lane option that involved a left turn onto the highway... https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/dr...maryreport.pdf

^ Thanks for posting that info Glacier, it explains why the 5-lane design is better.

Any update on timing? Is it under detailed design now? Has funding been secured? Will it be under construction in 2020? :D

I would rather construction doesn't start until NDP gets booted. The construction cost should be lower then. ;)

https://globalnews.ca/news/4900834/b...minister-says/

“We’re reviewing the project to widen HWY 1 between Langley and Abby” they said. ;)

It is obvious in this situation that the NDP are caught between a rock and a hard place.

The 3rd lane expansion is needed without a doubt, but the NDP don’t wan’t to appear pro highway expansion (look at Pattullo opening with 4 lanes, and the GMB fiasco).

But then on the flip side any “alternative” solution for Abbotsford would require a major commitment (such as rail) that they are not willing to fund / seriously propose. This would be far more expensive than simply adding the third lane.

I honestly have no idea what they will do about it. Swallow the pill and continue with the project, delay it until the Liberals are in power again, or (worse of all) make a shitty bus system that runs alongside the highway shoulders... (I really hope they don’t do such a Mickey Mouse option). A real bus system would require entirely new lanes.

Buses on the shoulder during rush hour as an interim solution? It's not necessarily a bad option. That's what Kitchener (and Cambridge) in Ontario have.

But it won’t be interim, look at the 99, been that for years, and now if they do replace the GMT they may keep that “temporary” solution instead of taking the opportunity to build a real bus system.

Remember, this is the place where counter flow systems last 30+ years and loved odd lane bridges.

Heh, what can you do when bridges need to be very high in order for big vessels to go through and there's no federal funding (*cough cough* Pont Champlain)...

I was looking at the most recent (June 2018) google streetview of TCH East between Pritchard and Chase, and horrified to see that there is absolutely no passing opportunity in between. :runaway:

They are absolutely NOT caught between a rock and a hard place whatsoever. Any time a decision becomes politicized then it is being made for the wrong reasons. This project is either needed economically or it is not. If it is needed then build it, if it is not then don't. Doesn't matter who is in Government or what their philosophy is.

"Any time a decision becomes politicized then it is being made for the wrong reasons."

That has already happened though. For instance, the project to widen TCH between Pritchard and Chase has been delayed to this year (when it was supposed to begin last year). From what I saw on the most recent google street view, the widening is badly needed.

Oh I realize that, and it happens everywhere (not just BC). And is pi$$es me off because there is no reason for it, politicians are putting themselves ahead of the population when they do this.

Doesn’t the shoulder turn into a de facto third lane during peak congestion anyways ? It’s been a while since I drove from the valley into Vancouver but I seem to remember drivers peeling down the shoulder when the TCH is all backed up

They already do? Oh no...

a video of the new Malahat

• Video Link

McKenzie Interchange, looking better

• Video Link

The NDP is NFG. There are no new projects coming any time soon, and the ones on the books are being delayed. Same thing happened in the 1990s.

New cable ferry deployed on Kootenay Lake between Longbeach and Harrop

https://www.nelsonstar.com/local-new...kootenay-lake/

Re-announcement of a long delayed project ?
http://https://globalnews.ca/news/5108787/trans-canada-highway-funding-improvements-bc/

Kind of funny how they describe it as a "Massive" funding announcement.

It's stuff like this that makes me cringe when people say AB should reduce it's spending on infrastructure to BC levels. $71.5 million is pretty minor for highway projects.

^Who is saying Alberta shout cut it's spending on infrastructure ?

From the best of my knowledge this is a newer project, but agree with the small scales.

Any highway 1 project should at least be 10km in length and preferably 50km or so in length. At least that would be a far more realistic timeframe for actually completing it in our lifetimes. This goes for the federal government as well through the national parks.

No more 2km and 4km long projects.

And what happened to the interchange in Golden as part of phase 5 on the Kicking Horse project?

I don’t understand why we can’t build a highway like we did with the Coquihalla and the Okanagan Connector (Hell, even the Island Highway was over 100km of new 4 lane divided highway I believe).

People who claim AB could cut it's deficit by lowering our per capita spending to BC levels. I don't think we're overspending, BC is grossly under spending.

Corndogger I will go even further - BC is not spending at all. I live near Vancouver and commute to my work in downtown. There are projects along the way that are "under way" in the last 10-15 years. I live in one of the cites north side of Fraser river and just now in the last ... perhaps 10 yers there is major road project. Not started by NDP, but liberals. NDP is just completing. It is very disappointing that this government is not spending anything on the infrastructure. It is disturbing. Few projects that are supposed to be done are either cut or not started. Maple Ridge Haney Bypass, Maple Ridge to Mission widening to 4 lines. It is just one portion done. I hope they will start the other one right after. Highway 1 widening from Langley originally is from 200 to 232 and now is to 216 with new overpass. Cut by NDP. There were plans underway for widening to Abbotsford but everything stalled again under NDP. All this infrastructure projects are fallout from the previous government. Don`t get me even started about Massey Tunnel here. It is not going to happen in the next 2 years, may be longer. The jams are enormous. Rant can go on and on.
We need federal highway program.

https://www.abbynews.com/news/federa...fraser-valley/

Abbotsford News. Recent article.
I am working already on my flying superpowers, because it will be the only way to move around very soon.

:tup: Agree whole heartedly.

It's really so frustrating that national highway infrastructure is such a low priority on a federal level. :???:

I don't know if I would trust the Feds to get highways right.

The feds don't need to design the roads just help fund them like they do in the U.S. along with setting some standards. At a minimum highways that makeup the national system should be four lanes, divided and with limited access. And no frickin' lights! This is easily doable if we make it a priority.

I don't really agree with you. The feds should be offering funding to smartly designed alternatives that reduce costs and footprints. What works on the prairies or in the maritimes won't work in the shield and mountains. In mountainous terrain, you should want the narrowest cross section of road that moves traffic safely at high speeds given the challenges of the area you're working in. If you need a few signals to save tens of millions of dollars, you do it. Doing it this way would be way more easy to do given that money is a huge consideration, despite what you've said.

We shouldn't be building roads like we did in the past. It's not sustainable. If you want to see what happens when you try to set one standard for entire road type, you should see the complexities and costs to build I-70 through Colorado and Utah.

In a world with infinite money, I'd agree with corndogger, but in a world where money is limited I agree with Mazrim. The problem really though is there just isn't enough money and it is unfair to assign the costs of the TCH to where it is geographically located. It's a national highway, so it should be adequately funded by the federal government, and since BC and Ontario's sections are much more expensive to build they should get proportionally more from the national pot, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan proportionally less.

I didn't say anything about the funding have to be equal but the minimal design standards have to be the same everywhere. Canada's not the only nation that has rugged terrain and we do have the money to build roads to the standards I've set.

Since when...? The federal government has been throwing lots of money at public transit (and rightly so), so I'm not sure where all this money for your freeway standard is coming from.