[Doug]

KICKING HORSE CANYON

LONGEST ROAD TUNNEL PROPOSED

Jean Sorensen
Correspondent www.joconl.com
Vancouver

A proposal for the longest road tunnel in North America has been included in the Phase III preliminary design of the Kicking Horse Canyon Project (KHCP).

The 2.9-kilometre road tunnel is also the first to be built in Canada for over 40 years.

While funding for the third leg of the KHCP project, which is a joint federal and provincial initiative, has still to be committed, the industry’s undertaking of the road tunnel is expected to attract international attention. “It’s a very significant project in North America,” says Dean Brox, P.Eng of Hatch Mott MacDonald in Vancouver, one of the engineers working on the KHCP tunnel project.

Once the project begins, says Brox, other engineering and construction firms will be watching to see how B.C. deploys technology and building expertise.

Proposals for the 17.3 kilometre third phase of the KHCP and the road tunnel being proposed were laid out in a document presented to the Tunneling Association of Canada (TAC) during its September conference held here.

Representatives from three B. C. engineering firms made the presentation. They were Brox, Steve Bean and Paulo Branco of Thurber Engineering Ltd. of Victoria and Mississauga, Ontario, and Terry Coulter of Coulter Consulting Limited in Victoria.

The KHCP consists of upgrading 26 kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway in B.C. from the town of Golden to the western boundary of the Yoho National Park to a modern four-lane standard. The first phase, replacing the Yoho Bridge was completed in 2004, and the second phase is a major cut-through of rock to a depth of 80 metres and it will be complete in 2007.

The work is being done by Trans-Park Highway Group, made up of a number of international firms such as Bilfinger Berger BOT Inc., Flatiron Construction Canada, Parsons Overseas Company of Canada, HMC Services Inc., and a number of B.C. consultants.

The third phase is anticipated to begin in 2008, which will upgrade the remaining stretch west from the Yoho Bridge to Golden and east of the second phase.

It will consist of the longer, 2.9 kilometre tunnel as well as several shorter, one-kilometre tunnels. By international standards, the tunnel is not considered long but in North America road tunnels are not common.

Brox says that tunnel roads are “significantly” more expensive to construct, but KHCP’s mountain terrain makes it difficult to opt for conventional roadbuilding options. “Other alternatives are just not considered feasible because of the railway below and the steep terrain,” he says.

The elevation of the canyon section is approximately 1,000 metres above sea level with steep walls flanking the current highway while on the other side, the bank drops down to Kicking Horse River and the CP Rail Line located on the lower slope of the canyon. Conventional road-widening of the two-lane highway would cause traffic delays, make it difficult to control blasting debris which could impact on the rail line below, and also trigger rock slides.

Thurber is providing geo-technical support on the preliminary design, says Bean. “We are drilling test holes in the rock and doing the investigation to try to figure the best route (for the tunnel),” he says.

The geography of the area is “difficult” and full of faults, fractures and folds. “We have ruled out a lot of areas,” he says, adding the search for the tunnel route is now being narrowed.

According to the paper presented at TAC which covers the tunnel alignment, “there are two preferred alignment options referred to as the NB-2 and NC-2 alignments.”

The NB-2 alignment comprising the longer tunnel deviates northwards below a sharp ridge known as Frenchman’s Ridge and passes under Dart Creek Valley, a 400 metre wide U-shaped glacial valley. The NC-2 route consists of a number of shorter tunnels connected together and cutting through a number of bluffs and canyons.

Both tunnel routes are being explored, says Bean, adding that drilling to find the best geology has been going on since 2004. He says that because contracts will be put forward for RFP in the future when the federal and provincial government reach accord on the next leg of the KHCP funding, he can not say whether one or both two tunnels routes will be the preferred method.

However, he says, it is standard practice in other countries to have two tunnels as a safety measure. The tunnels are usually connected with emergency exits so motorists, in the event of an accident that results in a fire, can escape on foot to the clear side of the tunnel. Some tunnels also feature refuge sites where food and oxygen is kept in the event of a disaster that traps individuals.

Currently, both traditional design-bid-build and design-build-finance-operate have been used for the first two phases of the KHCP and are being considered for the third phase.

[The Chemist]

Sweet! A tunnel would be fantastic, and given the state of the terrain between the current road works (and what a tall bridge they're building there :eek:) and Golden, I can't see any other way to do it. It'll be so nice when they're finished that work - it'll remove a stretch of road that is, to put it nicely, third world and an embarrasment to this country.

[Doug]

Park Bridge replacement u/c:
http://www.joconl.com/images/archives/2006/10/02/150.jpg

[SpongeG]

wow

[IntotheWest]

Tunnel would be a good idea - not crazy about the bridge (above) though. 2.9 kms doesn't sound that long actually, as I remember driving thru a 13/14-km tunnel in Austria...I think it was about a $20 toll.

[Boris2k7]

Sweet! A tunnel would be fantastic, and given the state of the terrain between the current road works (and what a tall bridge they're building there :eek:) and Golden, I can't see any other way to do it. It'll be so nice when they're finished that work - it'll remove a stretch of road that is, to put it nicely, third world and an embarrasment to this country.

Have to agree, that stretch is particularly nasty. :yuck:

[nname]

Is this the same tunnel shown in this diagram?
http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/kickinghorse/consultations/Community_Open_House_121505/Recent_Canyon.pdf

[mr.x]

Is this the same tunnel shown in this diagram?
http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/kickinghorse/consultations/Community_Open_House_121505/Recent_Canyon.pdf


No. There will be a 2.9 km tunnel and a few smaller tunnels, which are the ones in the diagram.

[Policy Wonk]

That is a terrifying streach of road, especially when you throw in the idiots on bikes who are riding a foot from an instant death.

[nname]

No. There will be a 2.9 km tunnel and a few smaller tunnels, which are the ones in the diagram.
Hm... there's a 2.7km tunnel in the diagram.

[mr.x]

^ my bad, yea.....that's probably it.

[canucklehead2]

Is the road going to be designed for 4 lanes now or just the two as it already exists? Either way, the project is long overdue...

[The Chemist]

Is the road going to be designed for 4 lanes now or just the two as it already exists? Either way, the project is long overdue...

Based on the already completed road work, and the width of the bridge piers being built currently, I'd say this is going to be 4 lanes right away.

If this tunnel is built, the Kicking Horse stretch of Trans Canada could go from one of the worst stretches of road in North America to a world class civil engineering marvel.

[sync]

as some one who drives this route with a certain amount of frequency, i'd love to see this!

[Distill3d]

if the tunnel is going to shave 20 minutes off my trips to Vancouver from Calgary, lets build the damn thing. lets build tunnels throughout BC!! just build a straight highway from Calgary to Vancouver with as many tunnels as humanly possible.

[Bigtime]

I remember driving through the Gran Sasso tunnel in Italy. Heading East towards the Adriatic you head straight at this mountain, the Gran Sasso. Next thing you know you're in a tunnel for 10km and then pop out and see the ocean, it is just mind blowing!

[Jared]

if the tunnel is going to shave 20 minutes off my trips to Vancouver from Calgary, lets build the damn thing. lets build tunnels throughout BC!! just build a straight highway from Calgary to Vancouver with as many tunnels as humanly possible.

Do you have a spare $10 billion you want to share with us? ;)

[dubiousmike]

Have to agree, that stretch is particularly nasty. :yuck:

I'm on board as well. That stretch of road is a real ass-clencher.

[theUSUALsuspect]

I have an opportunity to work on this project, so I am for it :D

[cornholio]

Tunnel would be a good idea - not crazy about the bridge (above) though. 2.9 kms doesn't sound that long actually, as I remember driving thru a 13/14-km tunnel in Austria...I think it was about a $20 toll.

Yeah if its the tunnel on the i think e-55 near the Italian border north east of Venice then i didnt realize there was a toll last year and wized through the express line only to have a big Austrian Hulga women jump out in front of my car and make me walk back up to the toll booths and pay, i was thinking of just steping on the gas and zooming away in my Skoda but she was mean lookin so i complied:(

Any how one thing I noticed was that the highways through the alps were amazing, especialy the one from Innsbruck to and through the Italian side of the alps..it was basicly something like a 100km or more stretch of straight tunnels and bridges carving through the mountains, if only we had the money to do that.

[Doug]

BC has had a dedicated 5 cents/litre fuel tax for twinning the TCH through Kicking Horse and Rogers passes for a few years now. Funding should not be an issue.

[Doug]

Golden highway tunnel studied
$350M plan aims to tame Kicking Horse

http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/media.canada.com/idl/cahr/20061009/80239-31692.jpg

Kerry Williamson, Calgary Herald
Published: Monday, October 09, 2006

The longest road tunnel in North America could be built through mountains in the Kicking Horse Canyon -- one of the most dangerous stretches of road in the country and a key connector between the Prairies and the West Coast.

The cost of the Trans-Canada Highway tunnel is at least

$350 million, and appears to be the favoured option to solve a transportation nightmare that has existed ever since the white-knuckle highway opened in 1962.

Tunnelling could begin as early as 2008, and be completed six years after work starts.

"A tunnel as opposed to a roadway is a serious option, one we are certainly looking at," Murray Tekano, project director for the Kicking Horse Canyon Project, told the Herald.

"A tunnel, as opposed to just widening the roadway, is going to get serious consideration."

The 2.9-kilometre, two-lane tunnel would be the first to be built in Canada in more than 40 years.

It would stretch from near the Yoho Bridge to the top of the hill descending into Golden, B.C. -- about 250 kilometres west of Calgary -- cutting out one of the most treacherous stretches of the Trans-Canada.

It is much more than just a pipe-dream. Three high-profile engineering firms have been contracted to provide a preliminary design, and test holes have already been drilled in the rock to identify the best route.

Two drill rigs are now on site, and rock testing is ongoing.

Stephen Bean, manager of the Victoria branch of Thurber Engineering Ltd., said two routes are being considered, including the 2.9-kilometre tunnel. The other option is to construct a series of smaller tunnels.

Bean said the tunnel would be a major engineering feat, likely to attract international interest.

"Tunnels are always challenging, no matter where they are, mainly because there's not a lot of them and every tunnel is different," he said.

"But it is going to change that area big-time, there's no question about it. There will be a legacy there that will last beyond just the construction. There are very few projects like this in North America."

Kicking Horse Canyon has been a transportation safety headache since the Trans-Canada was opened in 1962. There have since been no significant upgrades to the section of highway.

It is often deadly -- 21 people lost their lives in 700 accidents on the stretch of winding road between 1996 and 2001. Close to 400 people were injured in the canyon from 1991 to 2000.

And it is a vital east-west connector, carrying more than 9,000 vehicles a day during the summer. Almost 20 per cent of those vehicles are trucks.

"It's a top priority," said Tekano. "It's the Trans-Canada Highway . . . it figures high."

The tunnel is just one part of the massive Kicking Horse Canyon Project, a $730-million megaproject that involves upgrading about 26 kilometres of the highway, from Golden to the western boundary of Yoho National Park.

The first phase began almost six years ago, at a cost of about $65 million, $22.5 million of which was funded by the federal government.

Since then, rock work has been completed at 6 Mile Hill, the new Yoho Bridge has been built and part of the four-lane highway has been realigned.

Work has begun on the second phase, at an estimated cost of $130 million, including $62.5 million from the feds. That work will include a new Park Bridge, the upgrading of 5.8 kilometres of highway near 10 Mile Hill, and maintenance of the entire 26 kilometre stretch of the Trans-Canada between Golden and Yoho National Park.

No money has yet been secured from the federal government for Phase 3, which would include the tunnel. However, the B.C. government is lobbying for a cost-sharing agreement to be put in place and is placing high priority on getting the work done.

The tunnel is the central part of the Phase 3 development. The plan was recently presented to the Tunnelling Association of Canada.

"We are seriously studying the solutions, and tunnels offer us a good solution," said Tekano. "We're not there yet, but it's a strong contender."

Golden Mayor Jim Doyle, who met with federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon in May to discuss the project, said a tunnel would help save lives.

"We travel back and forth along that highway a lot, and it's not safe. It hasn't been since it was first built," said Doyle. "It's a bit of a goat trail.

"I know the police go out there on a regular basis -- I hear the sirens from my home -- and I always wonder what has happened. Whatever they ultimately do I will be happy with as long as something is done."

Doyle is confident a Phase 3 funding agreement will be reached shortly.

"I do feel good about them coming onboard with Phase 3," he said. "I have faith that both governments will agree in the coming days or the coming months . . . and ultimately the work will be done and we will have a nice, safe highway to travel on."

The tunnel itself would be constructed in one of three ways -- the traditional blasting and drilling, using a Roadheader tunnelling machine, or using a massive tunnel borer similar to what was used to drill the Channel Tunnel between England and France.

The third option is unlikely, however, because of the geology of the area. The sedimentary rock varies in strength and faults and is rarely uniform.

At one point, the tunnel could be drilled about 100 metres below ground level, beneath Dart Creek.

"There are a lot of faults, a lot of complicated geology here. We have ruled out some options and we are honing in on a couple that are favourable," said Bean.

"From there we will go forward. It is such a big, complicated area. Every time you drill you learn some more."

One of the difficulties is the steep grades of the highway. Unlike a rail tunnel, a roadway tunnel must be constructed at a lower gradient to allow vehicles to pull loads up and down it.

"Half the traffic here is trucks. It's a goods route, so that's very important," said Bean. "Trucks have to be able to go uphill."

And even if a tunnel is built, at least one lane of the current highway will have to be maintained, allowing access for river rafting businesses, Canadian Pacific Railway workers and cyclists.

kwilliamson@theherald.canwest.com

© The Calgary Herald 2006

[mafia guy]

i didnt realize there was a toll last year and wized through the express line only to have a big Austrian Hulga women jump out in front of my car and make me walk back up to the toll booths and pay, i was thinking of just steping on the gas and zooming away in my Skoda but she was mean lookin so i complied:(



:jester:

[Doug]

Trans-Canada plan long time coming
George Koch and John Weissenberger, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Eight years ago, the two of us travelled through the Kicking Horse Canyon near Golden, B.C., to research an article about the deplorable state of Canada's "national" highway, the Trans-Canada.

Today, the statistics concerning accidents, travel times, congestion, risks and economic importance all point to the urgent need for an extreme makeover. But, so far, virtually nothing has been done.

This may be changing. As Kerry Williamson reported in Monday's Herald, the B.C. government has made its top transportation priority to lift the province's eastern sections of the Trans-Canada from a near-Third World horror show into a modern, fast and safe twinned freeway.

Conservative MPs are pressing Transportation Minister Lawrence Cannon and the Prime Minister's Office to do their share.

It will be a huge, costly and complicated job. We can only pray the builders and government masters abandon the tentative, incremental approach of the past decade. We've witnessed too many "improvements" -- lauded by wasteful government signage -- with entire mountainsides torn up and traffic disrupted for years. Result? Slightly wider shoulders, a passing lane on one side, the other side now barred from passing, with no increased speed limit.

In the Kicking Horse Canyon, taxpayers forked over tens of millions of dollars to replace a single bridge. Though built with four lanes, two lanes were almost immediately shut down to make room for highway contractors.

With almost daily construction delays, the past decade's work has arguably resulted in a net increase to the typical motorist's travelling time. The job needs to be done -- faster and better.

The plan to bypass some of the Kicking Horse Canyon's worst perils by boring a nearly three-kilometre tunnel is welcome evidence that someone, at last, is thinking longer-term.

But why not tunnel past the entire canyon? Europe is chock-a-block with 10-, 20-, even 25-kilometre highway tunnels. Switzerland is building a 57-kilometre, twinned high-speed rail tunnel.

The argument for fixing the road is beyond compelling. The Kicking Horse Canyon section records peak traffic of 9,400 vehicles per day. Of these, about 18 per cent are heavy trucks.

Nearly 1,700 huge rigs grind along a rock-strewn, potholed gauntlet completed in the standards of the 1950s to early 1960s. Traffic is projected to double over the next 25 years.

From 1996 through 2001, 21 people lost their lives and another 391 were injured in 700 recorded collisions on the Kicking Horse leg. Twinning a highway typically halves collisions, while fatalities can sometimes be cut to zero.

Why has the Trans-Canada languished? The road is remote from capital cities and population centres. Out of sight, out of mind. Politically, it was opposition territory. Dollars spent there would be "wasted." Such cynicism was misplaced since voters of all stripes drive on it.

Today, Conservative MPs of the B.C. Interior, especially Colin Mayes, are raring to go. Cannon is reportedly listening.

Skeptics may see in this a remote rural paving project, benefiting tiny communities, weekenders towing their boats and some tour bus operators. What they're missing is that this is Alberta's and B.C.'s equivalent of the Montreal-to-Windsor/Detroit corridor: a vital trade route in urgent need of attention.

Assuming the average truckload is worth $50,000, $85 million in cargo moves along this road daily. That's $31 billion in trade per year. Cutting a trucker's Vancouver-to-Calgary travelling time by even one hour, at a typical operating cost of $150 per hour, would save transportation companies -- and customers -- nearly $100 million per year.

Lower shipping and travel costs would also boost economic activity -- in Vancouver, Calgary and every point between.

The public would save time and fuel. Canada could recapture the traffic diverted onto the Interstate 90 corridor through Washington, Idaho and Montana.

New Brunswick recently received $200 million of Liberal largesse to twin its entire remaining portion of the Trans-Canada by November 2007. We think the Trans-Canada should be a first-class freeway everywhere -- even in New Brunswick, with its barely 700,000 residents, fewer than live in Edmonton, Calgary or Vancouver.

Surely, then, one can't ignore a highway that binds two provinces with a population now greater than Quebec's.

The U.S. is pouring $218 billion into highway upgrades over seven years. B.C. is doing its bit. Having built the Coquihalla freeway two decades ago, it's now committed to fixing the Trans-Canada as far as Yoho National Park.

It's time for Ottawa -- "Canada's New Government" as the Conservatives call themselves -- to do theirs.

George Koch is a Calgary writer. John Weissenberger is a Calgary geologist. Both drive in the mountains a lot. More of their writing can be read at the weblog: www.drjandmrk.com
© The Calgary Herald 2006

[Doug]

Old article referenced above:

Columnists: Western View by George Koch



Pot-holed to death in B.C.


Welfare kills. Do they have those patronizing commercials in the East, where a cop-voice warns "Speed Kills!"? I think the evidence is stronger that welfare kills, or at least an excessive government fixation with welfare. B.C., Canada's tourism playground, also has one of the worst road systems in North America. Bad, and deteriorating. The impressive road-building of the otherwise unlamented Vander Zalm era in the '80s simply stopped in the '90s. The new NDP government had other priorities. You guessed it: billions of dollars in extra welfare payments and other socialist hand-outs to favoured voting blocs.

Even the least prosperous American states are crossed by divided Interstate highways, promoting commerce, tourism--and highway safety. But B.C. has an almost Third World road structure. With a few welcome exceptions, it's drive slowly or prepare to die. Huge stretches of B.C.'s roads are rough and pot-holed. Passing lanes are scarce. Speed limits are low and enforced by dogmatic cops. Getting down the Okanagan Valley, for example, is a joke of low-speed zones, traffic lights and creeping locals oblivious to other drivers' needs.

I log maybe 10,000 road km in B.C. most years. I've motored through the southern Interior, out to the Coast and up past Prince George to Mackenzie and Prince Rupert. The only road-building in evidence over the last decade has been the glacial upgrading of the Sea-to-Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler, the paving of the Duffy Lake Road from Lillooet to Whistler and a few minuscule upgrades of the Trans-Canada near Salmon Arm. For a huge province of four-million people, that's pathetic.

Of course, a few like it that way. Every remote B.C. valley holds people who moved there for the isolation. Among the most vocal opponents of the proposed ski area on Glacier Dome/Jumbo Glacier near Panorama were residents in the Duncan area--on the other side of the Purcell Mountains. Why? They feared ski area development might require a road over Jumbo Pass, bringing travellers, traffic, business and jobs to the Duncan region--things they didn't want.

Others say B.C.'s road system must change. "We have lobbied in the past for better local access roads to the ski hills themselves, and succeeded in getting gravel access roads blacktopped," says Jimmie Spencer, president of the Canada West Ski Areas Association. Now, he says, it should be the highways' turn. "Enhancements from the access points, such as airports, to the skiing towns would be hugely helpful. We need a good plan for the Sea-to-Sky Highway if we're serious about the 2010 Olympic bid for Whistler."

The Trans-Canada Highway is the most in need. This grandiosely named road was supposed to help knit our nation together. It ought to be freeway from the Alberta border to Vancouver. Sadly, most of the B.C. portion is built to the standards of a U.S. secondary highway. I've driven better, wider, smoother state roads in Montana--a poor state.

It's tempting to call the Trans-Canada a joke, but the reality is deadly. While highway fatalities are falling nationwide, here they are rising. Just over a year ago, a bus full of Taiwanese tourists slammed head-on into a semi-trailer in one of the snowsheds on Rogers Pass, killing six and injuring 21. The highway's 225 km from Sicamous to Golden logged 126 deaths from 1988-99. A local group has set up a website, www.fixtranscanada.org, to raise awareness. If you don't think welfare kills, check out the site's photos.

Yes, B.C. is rugged, making road-building expensive, but that excuse only goes so far. If you want to see what can be done in mountains, visit Switzerland, where far tougher terrain than B.C.'s contains well-maintained highways and even freeways. Where the mountains are too obstinate to go over, the Swiss go under. The country contains hundreds of kilometres of road tunnels. In one case, there's a tunnel interchange where two freeways meet underground.

The best solution to the Trans-Canada's deadly Kicking Horse canyon section just east of Golden would be a 10-km tunnel. A friend of mine, a geologist, drew up basic plans and contacted an Austrian tunnelling company about its feasibility. Its president replied that this would be one of his easier projects. But when I put this concept to B.C.'s then-premier Ujjal Dosanjh at a press conference, he laughed.

When a B.C. company proposed the same section of road be rebuilt in a more conventional manner, but using a public-private partnership structure that would be funded by investors and repaid through tolls, the NDP nixed the idea on ideological grounds. I guess it preferred highway deaths to seeing anyone earn a profit.

Something needs to be done. A dozen of B.C.'s great ski areas are nearly sealed off from the world. This can't be good for ski areas--nor skiers. And certainly not for anyone who wants B.C. to have an economic future.

[EastVanMark]

Does it say anywhere just how much travel time would be saved by this proposed tunnel?

[Doug]

^Probably only a few minutes. Safety is the main motivation for this project.

[mariokarter]

On a somewhat related note the amount of construction on the sea to sky highway is really amazing. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures sometime soon.

[Canadian Mind]

lol, has it become a two lane all the way through yet? I ent through back ion august and it was one lane which felt like it went all the way from squamish to horshoe bay for both directions to share. Occasionally there was a two-dirctional section. Was stuck in that line for about an hour, we thought it would be nicer to take the scenic 99 from Lytton to vancouver, bad idea, don't do it.

First off, right north of lytton the road is on a 500 foot cliff and there is only enough room for one car at a time to get through, plus no guard rail. Then there was the treturous mountain, followed by the land of illegal potatoes.

[Doug]

Traffic flows on Phase I of Kicking Horse Canyon

Jean Sorensen

Correspondent

KICKING HORSE CANYON

The federal and provincial government have jointly announced that the Phase I of the Kicking Horse Canyon Project, a major upgrade on the Trans-Canada Highway near Golden, B.C., is now officially open to traffic. The new section of highways was opened the first week of November and it show cases an award winning design and construction realized during the replacement of the Yoho Bridge on a stretch of roadway that cuts through what is considered the steepest part of the canyon.

“The Trans-Canada Highway is our most important gateway to the rest of Canada and the completion of Phase 1 is a major upgrade in the Kicking Horse Canyon,” said B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon. “This project is vital for travelers’ safety and for improving the flow of commercial goods through the corridor.”

The first phase of highway improvements replaced the pre-existing Yoho Bridge and upgraded 3.2 kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway through Kicking Horse Canyon to a four-lane, 100 kilometres per hour standard. The federal government contributed $21.3 million toward the $70.8 million cost of the project with the rest coming from provincial coffers.

Phase 1 is the first of three phases that will complete the upgrade on the highway. The new Yoho Bridge that was replaced carries a Delta-frame bridge pier design. Project manager Tom Lowe for Urban Design, which was the prime consultant on the bridge project, said two designs were considered for the bridge.

One was of steel designed by Sandwell Engineering and expected to be the lowest cost alternative while a second design featured concrete and a Delta frame design submitted by Associated Engineering. The Delta frame is a Y-shaped girder. “While it is not unheard of (as a design feature), it is not all that common,” said Lowe.

However, Associated Engineering’s Delta frame concept was able to reduce the size of the griders and therefore reduce the material costs, nudging out the steel bridge. The bridge design and the work on the approaches won the Yoho Bridge design team an award of excellence from the Consulting Engineers of B.C. in 2005.

The team consisted of Associated Engineering subsidiary, Brybil Projects, and partners Urban Systems, Golder Associates, Sandwell Engineering and Northwest Hydraulics. Project challenges included the rugged and unstable terrain, the narrow canyon, avalanche and rockfall hazards, and the proximity of the Kicking Horse River and the Canadian Pacific Railway main line. In addition, the design had to facilitate maintaining traffic during the construction.

Phase 2 involves the replacement of Park Bridge and approximately six kilometres of highway. Construction is currently underway. Ministry of transportation communications manager Mike Long said Phase II is progressing well and piers for the bridge have been placed with the decking being put on. Estimates are that the work to widen the road has resulted in 19 million cubic metres of rock being moved out of the area and this second phase is several months ahead of schedule.

Jon Jensen, B.C.’s project manager for Phase II at the Kicking Horse Canyon office, said the final completion date is spring 2008 but it is expected that traffic could begin flowing as early as November of 2007.

Phase III presents a major challenge engineering and cost-wise as it could result in North America’s longest tunnel and tunneling is considered more expensive than road building.

[EastVanMark]

Since highway 5 is paid off, why don't they use the tolls to build even more roads and tunnels to cut down on commute times as well as saving lives. I think people would be willing to pay an even higher toll if it meant shaving some time on their commute, or to know they are safe.

[canucklehead2]

So the goal is to get Hwy 1 to 4 divided lanes at 100 km/h for the entire way? I sure hope so, lol. Last time we drove from Calgary to Revelstoke it took 5 hours or so...

[SSLL]

No tunnels for more than 40 years?!

[RWin]

Here's a webcam link to the bridge being built over the river with images archived back to Nov 3.

http://www.earthcam.net/users2/interface.php?i=0&id=1247&projectid=720&clientid=575

[Lyle]

My dad was a foreman during the construction of the Alexandria Tunnel in the early 1960s.

http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/TCH/1W_306.jpg

[Xelebes]

Nice link there, RWin.

[MolsonExport]

Long overdue. Good news.

[Jerry]

We travel this route a number of times a year and are so happy finally something got done.

Great link RWin - wish I would of had it sooner.


Cheers