BC Highway Construction

[crazytown]

Totally agree. Many of the difficult terrain areas and bridges have been addressed. Hopefully with the ... Feds Action Plan... it will happen in a decade.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by craner

Drove Calgary to Penticton and back over the weekend - what a national embarrassment the TCH is for a large portion of this journey. Long stretches through Yoho, Rogers Pass don't even have any lines and the state of the road surface is third world. Pleeeaaase put some Federal/Provincial money into our national highway.
On the bright side, the highway could realistically be twinned from Calgary to Golden in 10 years with a concerted effort.

It really should be twinned. I don't know the actual numbers, but I have a feeling that Calgary to Vancouver is much busier than Calgary to Winnipeg, and isn't that section twinned for a significant amount of that stretch? Perhaps I'm way off base though But yeah, TCH needs to be twinned all the way between Calgary and Vancouver. Would probably cost over a hundred billion though... :/

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

It really should be twinned. I don't know the actual numbers, but I have a feeling that Calgary to Vancouver is much busier than Calgary to Winnipeg, and isn't that section twinned for a significant amount of that stretch? Perhaps I'm way off base though But yeah, TCH needs to be twinned all the way between Calgary and Vancouver. Would probably cost over a hundred billion though... :/

TCH is twinned from just west of the MB/ON border to just south of Lake Louise AB. The TCH should have been twinned across Canada since 1970!

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Would probably cost over a hundred billion though... :/

A hundred billion????

That's $250 million per km...

Maybe if they paved it with gold.

[craner]

I know the Feds and Province have been investing in upgrades to the TCH through BC recently - it was just shocking to see they have let it deteriorate to it's current state in many sections.

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

A hundred billion????

That's $250 million per km...

Maybe if they paved it with gold.

It was obviously a rough estimate, relax.

[MetroRailRoad]

It is definitly an important investment to upgrade the Trans Canada highway from Kamloops to Banff since it would create an expressway all the way to Ontario. As far as.twinning is concerned, I dont think there are many ,cities large enough to connect with an expressay. The Cqohahalla connects Kamloops to Hope by expressway, which already twinned by the two lane TCH.

[Yahoo]

Originally Posted by craner

Drove Calgary to Penticton and back over the weekend - what a national embarrassment the TCH is for a large portion of this journey. Long stretches through Yoho, Rogers Pass don't even have any lines and the state of the road surface is third world. Pleeeaaase put some Federal/Provincial money into our national highway.
On the bright side, the highway could realistically be twinned from Calgary to Golden in 10 years with a concerted effort.

Lol - I just got back from 2 third world countries (Zimbabwe&Tanzania) - and BOTH were fixing their main highways and twinning sections. As always I was shocked at how much better 3rd world highways often seem compared to BC - and even with a lot less traffic they seem to understand that for trade and safety you need modern highways - even if you're in a poor country. Interesting - one great section in Tanzania was paved by the Japanese in exchange for no Visa's and free park entrance for Japanese citizens for a year - according to our driver. (they buy a lot of Japanese cars there apparently and have a great relationship with Japan).

As for Calgary to Golden being twinned over the next 10 years it seems very unlikely (unless we can get the Japanese to pay for it lol). I think it took something like 40 years to twin Banff, and as far as I know the feds haven't given any hint that the mountain parks in BC will be twinned other than a few feet into Yoho. Pressure from BC has been slim to none on that - perhaps because they've been asking for fed help on the provincial sections so they know it's pointless to pressure the feds on their park sections. Repairing but not upgrading the 1 lane bridges in Yoho lately shows they aren't serious about twinning anything for decades. (hopefully I'm wrong, but you don't usually fix narrow crappy old bridges if you're planning a highway twinning anytime soon).

As for Golden-Kamloops the time frame seems equally bleak. I believe the money earmarked over the next decade won't even get it to the 1/2 way point (not even counting KHC). The highway will be twinned - but not in our lifetimes (unless you happen to be a baby)

[Canadian Mind]

Originally Posted by Yahoo

As for Golden-Kamloops the time frame seems equally bleak. I believe the money earmarked over the next decade won't even get it to the 1/2 way point (not even counting KHC). The highway will be twinned - but not in our lifetimes (unless you happen to be a baby)

Even just Kamloops through to Revelstoke would be a plus. The drive between Revelstoke and Golden is neither treacherous, nor pain full.

[Daguy]

Work has begun on phase II of Monte Creek to Pritchard. When I drove through last week and yesterday I saw some clearing of farmland in the alignment, just east of phase I work. Signs say a fall 2014 completion.

Signs are also posted for phase I of Pritchard to Hoffman's bluff with completion of Summer 2014.

[Yahoo]

Originally Posted by Canadian Mind

The drive between Revelstoke and Golden is neither treacherous, nor pain full.

I'd say it's treacherous in the winter - which is 6 months of the year. And painfully crowded in the summer months or around long weekends. So it's okay for say 2, maybe 3 months of the year, but I'm sure truckers wouldn't even agree with that.

I read newspaper articles where businesses and local politicians have complained about the main highway in Canada being closed between R & G several times a year - it's is a real economic concern for them. Even winter tourists are afraid of getting trapped (my boss was and won't be returning) and I know some people who refuse to vacation in BC in the summer because of the scary highway. The KHC appears to be the most dangerous - but the west side of Golden is overcrowded and very dangerous. What is it, something like 34 km there without a passing lane? On a crowded highway. People get frustrated and make some very dangerous passing choices. At least on the old KHC sections it's so winding and narrow it forces people to drive cautiously. Heading west from Golden is only safer on paper, not reality.

Slow, very slow, improvements are being made - at least in the non-park areas. In the mountain parks through BC it's pretty much the same road that was built in 1950's (often not even built to 1950's standards).

The super dangerous Donald bridge has finally been replaced - so that's a major improvement. The new road around the scales near the bridge was designed by fools (car traffic shouldn't have to slow down for a scale - it's just dangerous for trucks and other vehicles) but I know that's finally being improved too (it remains to be seen if they are actually fixing the problem there or just adding another lane to the confusing mess they built). It's sad when a new road has to be fixed.

[Daguy]

Drove to Calgary last week, and came back on Tuesday. The Clanwilliam overpass project is nearly completed. Four lanes were in operation by the drive home.

The banff twinning project seems to be getting closer as well. Most of the widening has been completed in the final phase, but only 2 lanes of traffic are currently operational. The small 500m extension into BC appears to be in the works as well: there was tree clearing completed, but was is a little hard to tell around the border, as the signs for BC and Alberta seemed to be missing (probably for the construction work).

I didn't have time to stop for pictures unfortunately. Hopefully I'll get some shots of Clanwilliam later this summer.

[craner]

Originally Posted by Daguy

I didn't have time to stop for pictures unfortunately. Hopefully I'll get some shots of Clanwilliam later this summer.

Yes, please do - I'd be interested to see this.

[Yahoo]

Originally Posted by craner

Yes, please do - I'd be interested to see this.

You probably already know about the construction cam, but for those who don't:

http://wcs.pbaeng.com/projects/R2-Hwy1-Rev

[kev_427]

The Lake Country Bypass is looking spiffy. Can't wait to drive it this summer.

[Wrecker]

So is there still construction going on between Bannf and Lake Louise?

[itom 987]

I didn't see any construction going on when I went skiing at Lake Louise in February.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by Wrecker

So is there still construction going on between Bannf and Lake Louise?

They've been working on that section since what now 2008, 2009?

[Daguy]

The construction is further west than Lake Louise, it's the last 8.5km to the BC border, with a possible/probable 500m extension into Yoho Park on the BC side. The segment to the border (virtually all of it) should be finished this year (i.e. Phase IIIB-3 which began in 2011). I hope the feds will announce twinning into Yoho Park sometime soon.

[craner]

^ Me too.
And by "soon" I mean this week.