Highway 63 twinning announced in Alberta. Mentioning it here since I believe it's about the same distance as remains on the Kamloops to Alberta border section (240km). Note that they are NOT awaiting federal funding. I think BC could learn something here. Ask for federal help on the provincial areas of the TCH for sure (called "Canada's main street" on the BC MoT website) - but put the big pressure on the feds to fund the upgrades in the national parks first. That's purely Federal - and if they see BC doing the right thing on the rest of the highway that'll be added pressure to fix up the park sections. As it is they see BC as relatively uninterested in completing the twinning anytime soon - so why should they care to fund their sections?
(provincial funding is actually decreasing over the next decade if what I've read is true ~710 in the past and ~650 now, but to be fair that could include federal money in the past - I don't know)
I realize 63 is over relatively easy terrain compared to in BC but BC isn't even doing the easy sections of the TCH. Alberta plans to twin 240 km in 4 years - but in BC the plan is to twin an additional what - 4.5 km or something over the next 4-5 years? And I'm not talking the massively expensive Kicking Horse section - I'm talking 4.5 km as part of 2 small bridge replacements that are urgently need of replacement anyway. And there are some big differences here. Alberta announced a schedule and budget, where in BC they made promises during an election but never announced a schedule (I guess voters will fall for anything). They even put up signs and reaffirm their intentions from time to time - carefully avoiding a schedule or full scale plans.
Looks like the bad press and death toll got to them...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgar...ighway-63.html
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/po...605/story.html
Another bad accident closed the TCH highway in Rogers pass on Friday. 12 year old boy dead this time. Accidents will always happen but a double divided national highway will prevent all these head on collisions.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/dea...028/story.html
Someone accused me of only caring about the roads I drive. Strange since I was only commenting in the forums relating to those roads - so obviously those are the roads I'd comment on. As far as the whole highway - I think it should be twinned nationally - except perhaps at the very ends if it doesn't make sense locally. I know there are parts of Ontario etc that don't get used much - but I think a lot of that has to do with the poor condition of the highway. People take the faster and safer USA route to drive across Canada (plus gas is cheaper). How sad is it that we have to rely on another country for our roads. I'm not suggesting the remote parts of Ontario should be done first, but they should at least be done once the rest of the highway is twinned. When you think about the old rail line across Canada or even the original TCH it could easily be argued that it wasn't needed yet (at the time). As we see - big projects like this really open up the country and with our big country we need effective transportation networks.