Trans Canada Highway Twinning: Segments U/C

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by flipper316

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...-b-c-1.5418344

"No detour is available and DriveBC estimates the highway will remain closed until at least 8 p.m. PT."

Yes there is, but like parts of Northern Ontario, it is a long way. How do I know? 15 years ago, a rock slide blocked the highway and traffic was stopped at Revelstoke. I had to take highway 23 south, across Arrow Lake via a ferry. It was the last ferry of the day. I had planned to spend the night in Golden, but decided to spend the night in Castlegar.

Every major highway should have a reasonable detour.

https://www.thesudburystar.com/news/...t-near-spanish

This happened a few days ago. There is a detour, but only for cars. Transports couldn't take the route.

[dmuzika]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

"No detour is available and DriveBC estimates the highway will remain closed until at least 8 p.m. PT."

Yes there is, but like parts of Northern Ontario, it is a long way. How do I know? 15 years ago, a rock slide blocked the highway and traffic was stopped at Revelstoke. I had to take highway 23 south, across Arrow Lake via a ferry. It was the last ferry of the day. I had planned to spend the night in Golden, but decided to spend the night in Castlegar.

Every major highway should have a reasonable detour.

https://www.thesudburystar.com/news/...t-near-spanish

This happened a few days ago. There is a detour, but only for cars. Transports couldn't take the route.

Technically there's a detour, but in the winter it's probably worse than waiting it out. There's a ferry south of Revelstoke and the Kootenay Pass on Hwy 3 between Salmo and Creston is higher than Rogers Pass on the TCh (highest pass in Canada that's open year round). If a winter accident shuts down the TCH between Revelstoke and Golden, you're not getting better weather on the Crowsnest.

[Metro-One]

Once we have a true federal highway program maybe we can have such a detour.

The interchange project west of Salmon Arm is moving along. Pic is from August 2019

Salmon Arm West work underway by B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, on Flickr

[Dengler Avenue]

Woah I thought it was still in planning stage. Impressive!

Also, about the feds’ commitment to cash in $159M for TCH in Tappen... Is it for real?

[jmt18325]

Looks like $82M:

https://www.saobserver.net/news/82-m...des-in-tappen/

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by jmt18325

Looks like $82M:

https://www.saobserver.net/news/82-m...des-in-tappen/

My bad... The 159 figure was meant for select sections of TCH in Interior B.C., besides Salmon Arm. I did a calculation a while back and got that figure.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by dmuzika

Technically there's a detour, but in the winter it's probably worse than waiting it out. There's a ferry south of Revelstoke and the Kootenay Pass on Hwy 3 between Salmo and Creston is higher than Rogers Pass on the TCh (highest pass in Canada that's open year round). If a winter accident shuts down the TCH between Revelstoke and Golden, you're not getting better weather on the Crowsnest.

I know that route....

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

"No detour is available and DriveBC estimates the highway will remain closed until at least 8 p.m. PT."

Yes there is, but like parts of Northern Ontario, it is a long way. How do I know? 15 years ago, a rock slide blocked the highway and traffic was stopped at Revelstoke. I had to take highway 23 south, across Arrow Lake via a ferry. It was the last ferry of the day. I had planned to spend the night in Golden, but decided to spend the night in Castlegar.

Every major highway should have a reasonable detour.

https://www.thesudburystar.com/news/...t-near-spanish

This happened a few days ago. There is a detour, but only for cars. Transports couldn't take the route.

Hope you enjoyed your stay.

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

I know that route....

I live only a half hour from that pass it is infamous.
They used to have Howitzers mounted on the side of the highway to shoot down avalanches!
Nowadays they drop shells from helicopters.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by Denscity

I live only a half hour from that pass it is infamous.
They used to have Howitzers mounted on the side of the highway to shoot down avalanches!
Nowadays they drop shells from helicopters.

The howitzers are still used at Rogers Pass.

[Dengler Avenue]

Let’s take our attention to Cobequid Pass for a bit:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...-104-1.5420814

Tolls are to stay for another year so the province can build pull-off area for motorists and maintenance centre midway in Cobequid Pass (aka the tolled portion of Highway 104 in N.S.).

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Let’s take our attention to Cobequid Pass for a bit:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...-104-1.5420814

Tolls are to stay for another year so the province can build pull-off area for motorists and maintenance centre midway in Cobequid Pass (aka the tolled portion of Highway 104 in N.S.).

Drove it a few times. The tolls are not the bad, in comparison to the 407. I am actually surprised that they didn't have a maintenance facility up there already.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Drove it a few times. The tolls are not the bad, in comparison to the 407. I am actually surprised that they didn't have a maintenance facility up there already.

It really isn’t, not even $5 for passenger vehicles. Stupid me. The first time I (with 3 other friends) drove to Halifax, I saw toll and immediately took the last exit (toward Westchester Station) to avoid it. It was late at night, and I was not at all ready for the gravel road from there to Trunk 4 through the valley. It also didn’t help that all my friends were telling ghost stories. “Oh look it’s a ghost town, a ghost rail track, a ghost station, a ghost station.” It was the worst when my friend in the front passenger seat went, “Maybe the person next to you is a ghost too...”

Oh well good old times

So now we were on Trunk 4. Again, driving at night in the middle of nowhere with no other cars around (save 1 or 2 going in the opposite direction - funny enough I saw a truck too) was scary. I was so relieved when we saw TCH again.

Fast forward, I found out that the tolls pale in comparison to 407ETR...

So the second time, when I went with another friend, I just took the toll road there and back. I enjoyed the drive much more.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

It really isn’t, not even $5 for passenger vehicles. Stupid me. The first time I (with 3 other friends) drove to Halifax, I saw toll and immediately took the last exit (toward Westchester Station) to avoid it. It was late at night, and I was not at all ready for the gravel road from there to Trunk 4 through the valley. It also didn’t help that all my friends were telling ghost stories. “Oh look it’s a ghost town, a ghost rail track, a ghost station, a ghost station.” It was the worst when my friend in the front passenger seat went, “Maybe the person next to you is a ghost too...”

Oh well good old times

So now we were on Trunk 4. Again, driving at night in the middle of nowhere with no other cars around (save 1 or 2 going in the opposite direction - funny enough I saw a truck too) was scary. I was so relieved when we saw TCH again.

Fast forward, I found out that the tolls pale in comparison to 407ETR...

So the second time, when I went with another friend, I just took the toll road there and back. I enjoyed the drive much more.

Even if they left the tolls forever and used it to maintain the highway, it wouldn't be a horrible thing. Removing it won't see a sudden increase of traffic.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Even if they left the tolls forever and used it to maintain the highway, it wouldn't be a horrible thing. Removing it won't see a sudden increase of traffic.

I’ve long wondered why they wouldn’t keep the toll on for a bit longer to finance twinning 104.
Then it just occurs to me that the current provincial government is liberal.
Back then it was the liberal that proposed P3 to reroute 104 around Wentworth Valley (another carnage valley). They had to use P3 because after some economic crisis, the province was extremely cashstrapped.
The decision to put a toll cost them big time in the election after.

Long story short, they don’t wanna get voted out. I also just realized that the consensus rejected using tolls to finance twinning too, though I thought they simply objected to putting (new) tolls on existing 4-lane freeways.

[b31den]

Originally Posted by dmuzika

Technically there's a detour, but in the winter it's probably worse than waiting it out. There's a ferry south of Revelstoke and the Kootenay Pass on Hwy 3 between Salmo and Creston is higher than Rogers Pass on the TCh (highest pass in Canada that's open year round). If a winter accident shuts down the TCH between Revelstoke and Golden, you're not getting better weather on the Crowsnest.

There are several passes that are higher than that open all year. I can think of some on Alberta highways 93 and 742. Bow summit and Sunwapta Pass are both over 2000m.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by b31den

There are several passes that are higher than that open all year. I can think of some on Alberta highways 93 and 742. Bow summit and Sunwapta Pass are both over 2000m.

I doubt those get the snowfall of Kootenay Pass. I've driven Kootenay where the snow was coming down so fast that I had to pull over several times to clear the mound off the hood so I could see out. Still nothing like some of the US roads that are 8K to 12K feet in elevation in extreme snowfall zones. US roads are generally far better maintained.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

I’ve long wondered why they wouldn’t keep the toll on for a bit longer to finance twinning 104.
Then it just occurs to me that the current provincial government is liberal.
Back then it was the liberal that proposed P3 to reroute 104 around Wentworth Valley (another carnage valley). They had to use P3 because after some economic crisis, the province was extremely cashstrapped.
The decision to put a toll cost them big time in the election after.

Long story short, they don’t wanna get voted out. I also just realized that the consensus rejected using tolls to finance twinning too, though I thought they simply objected to putting (new) tolls on existing 4-lane freeways.

It was also the Liberal NB government that put the toll on the TCH between Fredericton and Moncton in 1999. I only paid the toll once, and I can't even remember where the toll was. The PC's swept into power later that year and removed the toll a year after they began.

[Dengler Avenue]

The swept into power later that year and removed the toll a year after they began.

The NBPC swept into power...? But yea I heard that people were pissed. This one driver was so angry that he gave a hundred dollar bill at the toll booth for changes. I don’t know what that achieved though... Also the weird configuration of the interchange between N.B.-2 and Route 101 was due to toll booths?

[Djeffery]

I only recall the one toll, and it was definitely further east than Fredericton. I wanna say right around Salisbury.