Building a
safer
63
Industry and government collaborate to improve road safety for workers and the public on the once infamous Highway 63. By Elizabeth Chorney-Booth
Road safety is an ongoing issue in and around the oil sands region. Among the more notorious roadways when it comes to accidents is Alberta’s Highway 63. Highway 63 begins at Grassland and is used to take supplies, labour, goods, and community members north towards Fort McMurray. The 240-kilometre stretch of highway has been known for its congestion, its inefficiency, and most importantly, the high number of fatal accidents that are often the result of head-on collisions, caused by passenger vehicles trying to get around the many slower-moving and wide-load commercial vehicles sharing the road. “You needed to be very cautious,” says Will Gibson, Media Relations Advisor at Syncrude Canada Ltd. Both for work and as a coach of a competitive soccer team, Gibson has driven the highway many times over the past ten years, and has seen drivers frustrated by slow-moving traffic take dangerous chances. See an update of twinning progress for Highway 63 at http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/4942.htm 30
context . volume 2 . issue 3 . November 2014
As a vital lifeline to Fort McMurray from the rest of the province, the volume
and mixed usage of the road has long outgrown the capacity of the single-lane highway, which is something that has been of great concern to members of the oil industry, government officials, and the citizens of Fort McMurray. With so much at stake, from both an economic and a safety point of view, groups representing both industry and the community have been clamoring for improvements to the highway for years. Thankfully, relief for commuters on Highway 63 is in progress. In October, Alberta Premier Jim Prentice announced the signing of the final contract to complete the twinning of a large portion of the highway for the amount of $71 million. Taking previous contracts into account, in all, nearly $425 million of the 2014 budget was allotted to twinning Highway 63. To date, more than 20 per cent of the 240 kilometre twinning project has been completed. If construction stays capp.ca/context
Photographs: Courtesy Government of Alberta
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