The Province of British Columbia has long been known in the trucking community for treacherous driving conditions that result from extreme terrain challenges and wild winter weather. The main East-West corridor through the Province, Highway 1, is still largely composed of two-lane undivided sections.
However, the Province and Federal governments are collaborating to push forward to their goal of a completely twinned, four-lane divided route from Alberta to Vancouver. At this time, major detours are in place as construction workers tackle one of the most challenging sections of the project: Highway 1 through the Kicking Horse Canyon.
While there are many more sections of Highway 1 to twin, the final result through the Kicking Horse Canyon is sure to impress and please those who are familiar with the route. Known for steep grades and extremely sharp curves, truckers have been tolerating this stretch of road for decades and will no-doubt appreciate the final result.
Currently, the Coquihalla (Highway 5) provides a divided highway link between Vancouver and Kamloops, BC; the challenge is to complete the twinning from Kamloops to the BC/AB border where, throughout Alberta and the prairie provinces, Highway 1 remains a twinned and divided highway. BC has public plans to complete the twinning and many of the sections are already done.
Once the twinning is complete and BC’s Highway 1 and 5 provide a true modern west coast access highway, it will be interesting to see how trucking through BC changes. The new highway will allow for increased combination sizes and possible expansions of extended-length trucks, but at this time, the industry must detour and wait.
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