Kicking Horse Pass Construction Update
Traffic is now flowing onto the fully-widened highway and bridges since the start of December, said the Ministry of Transportation in an update October 26.
The #1 Trans-Canada Highway between Golden and Lake Louise and Banff is fully open 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.
April & May 2024 Finishing Touches
From Tuesday, April 2 onward, traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction and speeds posted at 50 km/h throughout the construction zone. Two-minute stoppages will be a regular daily occurrence, and daytime full closures of up to two hours are planned on four days: April 3, 15 and 29, and May 13.
Completion of final items includes pavement, line painting, wildlife fencing and landscaping.
What Has Been Accomplished
Over the past three years, about five kilometres of narrow and curvey two-lane highway has been transformed into four divided lanes to make for a safer, smoother trip through the Kicking Horse Pass. This was accomplished in very challenging geology by building using a combination of building bridges to straighten curves, blasting away rock to widen flat sections and/or to cut through some jutting rocks to straighten the highway route, adding viaducts (sections of roadway supported by columns) to create a wider highway on steep-sloped hillsides, and adding walls above and below the highway for additional stability. Some bridge pylons are over 100 metres high. This challenging 4 kilometre section of the Trans-Canada Highway cost about $600 million dollars ($215 million from the Government of Canada, and the balance funded by British Columbia).
Kicking Horse Pass Schedule
Travellers began using the upgraded eastbound lanes last fall (2022), and the remaining eastbound lanes on the Bighorn Viaduct (see map below) were finished and construction turned to the westbound lanes, walls and rockfall protections.
The Trans-Canada was closed from late September till early October for major concrete pours along the Lynx, Elk and Caribou viaducts (see map below). That would be the last extended closure needed, though there will be some delays, including nighttime closures, until the end of November.
Fly-Over Video in Fall of 2023
Detailed Map of Kicking Horse Canyon Phase 4
Updated Kicking Horse Canyon Construction Plan – Phase 4
