TransCanada Highway

The Current Project

Phase IIIB

The TCH between Castle Junction and the British Columbia border is clearly in need of improvement. In the summer, it carries an average daily traffic load of 14,000 vehicles, and is often congested. Its single lanes form a bottleneck for traffic. Driver restlessness brings unsafe driving behaviour and traffic conditions. And animals have died by the hundreds in collisions with vehicles through the years. All these things will grow worse as traffic increases in the coming years, as it is almost certainly bound to do.

In October of 2003, the federal government announced the provision of funding to continue the twinning and mitigation of the TCH west of Castle Junction. In doing so it prescribed three goals for the project:¹

• Improve motorist safety
• Reduce wildlife-traffic conflicts and bring about environmental improvements
• Increase the efficient transportation of people and goods.

A very real challenge lies in meeting all three goals over the whole 33 km: money. According to Parks Canada planners a reasonable plan to attend adequately to the full stretch of highway would cost approximately $160 million. The October 2003 announcement from Infrastructure Canada, however, only provided $50 million for the work. How to allocate those funds in the short- and medium-term so as to respect the three goals has been a source of tension.

The shortfall of funding has meant that the planning of the highway improvements to date has proceeded on two tracks. On the one hand, planning and environmental assessment for the whole 33 km has proceeded, in the hope that planning delays will be avoided when further funds become available. On the other, interim construction of a limited stretch within the immediate financial constraints has been planned for and assessed.

The full plan calls for twinning of the full remainder of the highway in the Park. This is expected to ease traffic congestion and decrease the possibility of head-on collisions.

The environmental mitigations proposed include the fencing of both sides of the highway using the same type of fence as was used on the segment of the highway most recently upgraded, with wooden posts² and a buried apron.

Eighteen WCS's are provided for. Of these seven will be “primary” structures. These primary structures will include two overpasses of a width of 60 metres. (The width of the earlier overpasses is 50 metres.) The primary underpasses will also have a design width of 60 metres, except where the Bow River or railway passes underneath them, in which case they will be larger. These larger structures are in keeping with the recommendations arising from research on existing crossing structures. They are larger than existing structures to accommodate the needs of sensitive species found in greater prevalence in the upper Bow Valley, especially grizzly bears.

In addition to the 18 WCS's, 93 small culverts will be installed at approximately 400 metre intervals along the road, which will aid smaller animals in crossing. At least one human crossing structure will be provided for at Lake Louise, hopefully removing the temptation for people to use the structures intended for wildlife only.

The new construction will be routed so as to avoid rare and valuable habitat patches, especially wetlands, and the median strip will be narrower than is standard in order to minimize the total amount of habitat physically disturbed. Existing culverts and bridges will be modified so as to decrease their negative environmental impact.

The limited funding immediately available gave rise to consideration of which portion of the larger plan should be advanced first. A “segment analysis” was carried out reviewing which parts of the highway accounted for the most traffic accidents and animal deaths. This led to consideration of four possible segments for priority construction. It was decided that a stretch of approximately 12 km in length to the east of Lake Louise (Segment B) should be the priority.

It was the full plan and the interim plan to upgrade Segment B with the funds immediately available which was released for public comment and environmental assessment during the summer of 2004. The full plan was generally well-received, but significant elements of the plan for Segment B were criticized in the environmental screening.³

Trans-Canada Highway Twinning: Phase IIIB

The preliminary plan for Segment B would have had the western end of the fence near the Bow River crossing two km east of Lake Louise. In general, fence ends tend to be places of higher wildlife mortality. In this case, the fence would lead animals to a piece of road where there is already high mortality, intensifying the problem, rather than relieving it. As well, the fence would lead animals toward the Town of Lake Louise. This direction of animals to Lake Louise corresponds with a rising concern with the habituation of grizzly bears in the Lake Louise region, including bears’ increasing entry into the town. At the same time, Parks Canada is planning to reduce forest cover around the town to protect against the danger of wildfire. The forest reduction is expected to have the side effect of increasing ground vegetation, which is likely to act as an attractant for bears. In short, the combination of the originally proposed new fence end and the forest thinning could significantly increase bear/human conflict around the town of Lake Louise. It is for that reason that the recommendation has been made that, when the highway fence passes by the town, it passes around the west wide of the town, such that the town would be on the “highway side” of the fence. CPAWS is supportive of this proposal, but it remains a source of public controversy. Parks Canada has not yet reached a decision on it.

In response to the environmental screening and public comment, significant modifications were made to the design by Parks Canada. These included both environmental and traffic flow and safety measures. On the environmental front, the most important modifications were:

1. The extension of the highway fence by 7 km to a point approximately 4 km west of the town of Lake Louise, even though the twinning will not proceed that whole distance. (The highway immediately adjacent to the town is already twinned.) No decision has been made as to whether the fence will pass by the town or around the west side of it. This part of the construction will not take place for a couple of years, and that decision will be made in the meantime.
2. The elimination of the seasonal 70 km/hr speed reduction zone at Lake Louise, as the fencing will reduce the need for it.
3. The addition of large culverts at the interim fence ends, to allow wildlife at those locations an obvious alternative to crossing the road.
4. The addition of a 60 metre wide wildlife overpass approximately 400 metres west of Moraine Creek, to compensate for a reduction in the size of the Moraine Creek bridge from the original design. (Moraine Creek is important for harlequin ducks. The original design sought to give them plenty of room to fly under the bridge, and serve the needs of other species, but turned out to be impractical from an engineering perspective. The new design is thought to be still high enough to provide for the ducks, though not optimal.)
5. The removal of one human crossing structure at the east end of Lake Louise, which the environmental screening warned would attract people to an area of heavy grizzly bear usage. In its place options are being explored with the CPR to provide for some regulated pedestrian use of the CPR right of way and structures for crossing under the highway.

From a traffic and safety perspective, the changes in the final plan include:

1. Modification of the design features of the Highway 93N interchange
2. Dual direction access to Harry’s Hill
3. Pavement designed for skid resistance
4. Addition of rumble strips on internal and external shoulders.

The total amount of highway twinned under the interim plan will be 1-2 km shorter than originally planned, due to the expense of the modifications. However, the independent expert consulted by Parks Canada has agreed that overall the modifications will enhance the safety of the road. Further, the elimination of the seasonal reduced speed zone will enhance overall transportation efficiency, at least during the peak summer months.

It is also important to note that the environmental screening recommended that those sections of the highway previously twinned and fenced should be retrofitted with better fencing and WCS's so as to reflect the knowledge that we have gained since those sections were built. Parks Canada has deferred consideration of that recommendation, but we at CPAWS feel that this is an important consideration for the longer term as we look at the TCH.

Notes :

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