BC Highway Construction

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Airboy

You would still get the assholes parking in the middle of the highway to look at an elk on the side.

Canada needs to start being a big boy country with big boy rules, our 'politeness' is highly annoying. Unless you have an emergency, you should be ticketed for stopping on the side of the highway.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by milomilo

Canada needs to start being a big boy country with big boy rules, our 'politeness' is highly annoying. Unless you have an emergency, you should be ticketed for stopping on the side of the highway.

I'm surprised no one's been killed on the highway in Jasper, in the summer is common to see many cars barely pulled onto the shoulder, kids running around all over the place as they take pictures of the big horn sheep, as convoys of traffic try to make it past them

I see why large semi's will lay on the air horn as they roll through these pop up tourist stops. It gets ridiculous and adds a ton of time for those of us just trying to get through to BC

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Denscity

The Kootenays have twice the population of Prince George they should twin the 3.

The lower mainland has 16 times the population of the Kootenays, where's our 32 lane highway?!

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by LeftCoaster

The lower mainland has 16 times the population of the Kootenays, where's our 32 lane highway?!

Ha well one day if you ever need it I'm sure funding will be there.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Ha well one day if you ever need it I'm sure funding will be there.

If widening Second Narrows is already a hard sell, I highly doubt it.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Ha well one day if you ever need it I'm sure funding will be there.

We cancelled widening our main highway from 4 to 6 lanes between Langley and Abbotsford... so yeah, thinking the widest we will ever see in BC is the #1 on and near the Port Mann Bridge (I am actually okay with that, but we do need more 6 and 8 lane roads, especially if we want proper HOV lanes and rapid bus services).

[Denscity]

If anything gets the funding it would be the #1 on the coast is what I meant. We don't get back what we put into the provincial coffers. A bit of an Interior beef we all have.

[240glt]

I think BC does a pretty good job on the secondary highways in BC. The lack of dedicated passing lanes notwithstanding, the roads themselves tend to be in pretty good shape.. especially given the terrain in most of the interior, far superior to the secondary highways in Alberta anyways

And don't forget all those ferries... BC has a pretty impressive network of interior water crossings that are all free to use. My favorite part of the trip to the Nelson area is taking the Kootenay Lake ferry. In a week we're headed down that way for a couple days and we have a cottage in Harrop. SO we'll be making good use of the Harrop Proctor ferry as well.

[Dengler Avenue]

Meanwhile, can anyone confirm whether twinning of TCH in the eastern end of Yoho National Park is done?

[Glacier]

Originally Posted by 240glt

I think BC does a pretty good job on the secondary highways in BC. The lack of dedicated passing lanes notwithstanding, the roads themselves tend to be in pretty good shape.. especially given the terrain in most of the interior, far superior to the secondary highways in Alberta anyways

And don't forget all those ferries... BC has a pretty impressive network of interior water crossings that are all free to use. My favorite part of the trip to the Nelson area is taking the Kootenay Lake ferry. In a week we're headed down that way for a couple days and we have a cottage in Harrop. SO we'll be making good use of the Harrop Proctor ferry as well.

BC has a lot fewer roads than Alberta. There aren't really any secondary roads in the province in that you generally only have one or two options when traveling between towns. Much of the good highways are living on the legacy of Flyin' Phil Gaglardi from 40 years ago. Now that the NDP is in charge, the construction of highway projects will become almost non-existent. Mark my words. We will slip behind.

BTW:

Prime Minister, Premier, Ministers

Yesterday’s budget for Kamloops to Alberta Border upgrades increased funding by about 25 per cent over the next two years over the previous forecast. However the budget suggests there was an underspend of $24 million in 2017 from the forecast spending. If this is assumed to have been deferred (e.g. the Illicellewaet brake check construction that has been delayed from 2017 to 2018) then the true increase in spending over the next two years falls to 13 per cent. I also note that completion of the Salmon Arm West upgrade has been put back a year. I suppose this just about counts as the ‘acceleration’ of the Kamloops to Alberta Border upgrade program promised by the current provincial government of British Columbia in its platform commitments and ministerial mandates. Federal infrastructure work has started on 4 laning in Yoho National Park and is supporting phase 4 of the Kicking Horse Canyon project (which means that project should finally be completed 23 years after work started). There are also relatively minor improvements underway in Glacier National Park. However, the exact scope, funding and timescales of work being done in the National Parks is being kept quiet – the public seems to only get minimal information after work has started.

The Kamloops to Alberta border upgrade program for the Trans-Canada highway still has no plan, no timescales, no cost estimate and only a tiny fraction of the outstanding work is funded. Assuming that progress will continue at the same rate as since 2001 (less than 4 km p.a.) then the completion date for upgrading the two lane sections of the highway is around 2062 – i.e. the centenary of the opening of the highway. This slight acceleration in funding isn’t going to bring that appreciably closer – especially as many of the remaining sections will be almost as difficult and expensive to upgrade as Kicking Horse Canyon Phase 4. This for the main transportation link between British Columbia and its Pacific Gateway and the rest of Canada. A route that has been called the most lethal highway in the Province (Global BC based on ICBC data).

Clearly you decision makers in Ottawa and Victoria don’t understand that for those of us who live and work on the Trans-Canada highway it is a matter of life and death (or life changing injury). I don’t expect the typical politician from far away (or bureaucrat or political advisor) to really care or really understand – for you is just a minor issue of the job you are doing for a while until you move on to something else. You will certainly have moved on long before you can claim credit for completing it. Also it is only a major issue for an insignificant number of voters in a remote part of the province. The significant economic impact of accidents and closures isn’t an election issue for the majority of voters so it can be and is ignored. Why spend on a program that won’t yield proportionate electoral benefits?

I don’t think there is any prospect of the completion of highway upgrades to safer, modern standards within my lifetime – even though I am the same age as the unimproved sections of the highway. I doubt that people born in 2001, when the Kicking Horse Canyon project started, will see upgrades completed before they reach retirement age. Indeed, I have severe doubts that some sections of the highway will ever be upgraded – human driven vehicles will probably be obsolete before that happens.

I would also argue that the current piecemeal upgrading of sections of the highway is a very inefficient way to spend our money. Especially when it may not be feasible to upgrade some sections of the highway – at least not at a cost that our governments are willing to pay. What it certainly achieves is to put even more pressure on the sections of highway that haven’t been upgraded and the communities that suffer from being served by and serving them.

I am not going to let you forget about this issue so I will keep banging my head against this brick wall in the faint hope that eventually you or your successors will take action.

– Nick Thomas

Revelstoke, B.C.

https://www.revelstokereview.com/opi...-this-century/

[Dengler Avenue]

Unfortunately, with the way that BC (or Canada in general) does this kind of things, it will just drag on to centuries.

I have always wondered about this:
Since the terrain around TCH is mostly mountainous, is it better if the province spends all the money blasting rocks first, then worries about putting in the lanes later?

[VANRIDERFAN]

CP Rail has two tunnels that bypass Rogers Pass.

Why doesn't the government dig a four lane tunnel under the Pass and alleviate all the issues of trying to go over the top?

[milomilo]

Lack of ambition? They should copy the French and toll the whole trans Canada network in exchange for building it in a non rinky dink fashion.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by milomilo

Lack of ambition? They should copy the French and toll the whole trans Canada network in exchange for building it in a non rinky dink fashion.

That’s just gonna force traffic onto Yellowhead and Crownest. In the case of Ontario, that will mean a party never elected to power again.

[milomilo]

If it was done properly, you'd have a substantial network so the only way to avoid it would be to take back routes. Rather than disproportionately tolling the expensive parts, toll the whole thing so that someone travelling 1000km across the prairies subsidizes the tunnels in the Rockies.

[240glt]

I'd be fine with a toll somewhere between Revelstoke and Golden to recoup the cost of a significant upgrade to that section of highway. Just like the Coquihalla, people will pay a marginal fee to save a lot of time and travel on a proper highway.

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by 240glt

I'd be fine with a toll somewhere between Revelstoke and Golden to recoup the cost of a significant upgrade to that section of highway. Just like the Coquihalla, people will pay a marginal fee to save a lot of time and travel on a proper highway.

IMO, it's fairer and better to toll an entire network. The economic activity of the trucks and cars between Winnipeg and Calgary are just as important as those between Calgary and Vancouver, but by geographic fortune one of those routes is far cheaper to service well than the other.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by 240glt

I'd be fine with a toll somewhere between Revelstoke and Golden to recoup the cost of a significant upgrade to that section of highway. Just like the Coquihalla, people will pay a marginal fee to save a lot of time and travel on a proper highway.

If we're gonna toll just a section of TCH, it'll be the 4 km in Kicking Horse Canyon. $1B for 4 km! Man I've never heard of something this expensive.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by milomilo

IMO, it's fairer and better to toll an entire network. The economic activity of the trucks and cars between Winnipeg and Calgary are just as important as those between Calgary and Vancouver, but by geographic fortune one of those routes is far cheaper to service well than the other.

I'd be fine with tolls throughout the highway as long as there is some value there... IE if it's still a rinky-dink 2 lane road around the great lakes I wouldn't expect there to be a toll on it. Upgrade it to modern standards then absolutely.

[240glt]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

If we're gonna toll just a section of TCH, it'll be the 4 km in Kicking Horse Canyon. $1B for 4 km! Man I've never heard of something this expensive.

It is a tricky piece of highway.

I would not want a toll east of Golden because that effectively cuts off Golden from Calgary. People in small towns shouldn't have to pay a toll to access larger city amenities, so it'd be punitive to residents of Golden. Revelstoke residents can travel to Kamloops or Kelowna so they wouldn't be impacted either. Yes the Kickinghorse section is the worst and most expensive but all the way west to Canoe there are upgrades required. I'd say Glacier would be a natural place for a toll