Engineering and Driving Challenges —
the Kicking Horse Canyon Route

Kicking Horse Canyon is located on the Trans-Canada Highway, extending through the Rocky Mountains between Golden, British Columbia and Lake Louise, Alberta. The Kicking Horse Canyon Project involves improvements to the 26 kilometre section of the Trans-Canada Highway between the Highway 95 junction at Golden and the western boundary of Yoho National Park.

The corridor traverses extremely challenging mountain terrain and has not had major upgrading since it was built in the 1950s. This portion of the Trans-Canada Highway poses significant construction, maintenance and operation challenges from an engineering perspective. The highway user—whether commercial, tourism or residential—is also challenged by the route. The corridor is shared with the main line of CP Rail, located below the highway.

The Kicking Horse Canyon section is primarily a narrow winding two-lane section of the Trans-Canada Highway with steep rock faces on one side and a drop-off to the Kicking Horse River on the other side. The route carries about 9,000 vehicles per day during the peak summer period. The improvements underway will make it safer and more efficient for traffic by reducing sharp curves and steep grades, while increasing capacity and improving traffic operations. The design speed on this new wider divided section of highway will increase from 80 km/hour to 100/km per hour.

Kicking Horse Canyon Route Improvements in three phases:

Phase 1

Replacement of the Yoho Bridge, and upgrading 3.2 km of the Trans-Canada Highway from 2 lanes to 4 lanes. The federal government is contributing $22.5 million toward this phase of the project through the Strategic Highway Infrastructure Program (SHIP). [more detail]

Phase 2

Replacement of the Park Bridge and upgrading and reconfiguration of 5.8 kilometres of highway approaches to the new bridge. The federal government has committed to contributing $62.5 million toward this phase of the project under the Canadian Strategic Infrastructure Program (CSIF). [more detail]

Phase 3

Upgrading and replacement of the balance of the Trans-Canada Highway through the corridor including the sections from the Highway 95 junction in Golden to the new Yoho Bridge and from the 10 Mile Hill commercial vehicle brake check to Yoho National Park. [more detail]