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Major Highway 1 upgrades near Golden inches closer to construction

Construction is expected to last for four years
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Kicking Horse Canyon has many tight bends and corners. (Keri Sculland/Star Photo)

On Sept. 18, the province announced it’s closer to choosing the final team to reconstruct a 4.8 km section of Highway 1 east of Golden.

READ MORE: ‘Definitely Revelstoke will take a financial hit’: Highway 1 upgrades near Golden to begin fall 2020

The team entering into final rounds of negotiations include Kicking Horse Canyon Constructors, Aecon Group Inc, Parsons Inc. and Emil Anderson Construction.

Phase 4 involves turning a two lane highway in Kicking Horse Canyon into a four lane divided roadway.

The province is aiming to reduce collisions by 66 per cent and increase the posted speed limit from 80 km/h to 100 km/h.

Limited preliminary work is expected to start this fall prior to the final contract award, which is expected later this year. Traffic will be minimally impacted at this point in time.

However, once the final contract is awarded and reconstruction begins in earnest, various types of closures are to be expected, such as delays of up to 20 minutes, scheduled closures less than two hours, overnight closures up to 10 hours and extended 24-hour closures.

READ MORE: Upgrades coming to Highway 1 between Glacier National Park and Golden

In an earlier article, the province said there will be no 24-hour closures during the summer or winter and extended 24-hour closures should be posted three months in advance on DriveBC. Traffic will be diverted to Highway 93 and Highway 95, adding an extra 100 kilometres to the drive from Calgary to Golden.

The project is expected to cost $601 million and be finished by 2024.

In 2003, the Kicking Horse Canyon Project was launched to improve 26 km of highway between Golden and Yoho National Park. The province said all four phases will cost $927 million, with the Government of Canada providing $350 million and B.C. covering the rest. Each summer day, roughly 12,000 vehicles travel this section of highway. Phase 4 is the final project.

Written with files from Claire Palmer

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