Trans-Canada Highway Improvements
Yoho National Park
The Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) in Yoho and Banff national parks was built as a scenic, low volume, two-lane highway in the 1950s. Today it is a major commercial highway in Canada and the primary access route for five million visitors to Canada’s mountain national parks. Average daily traffic volumes in Yoho National Park reach nearly 7,500 vehicles.
Gradual upgrades to the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff and Yoho national parks are being guided by three equal goals:
- Improve motorist safety
- Reduce highway-related wildlife mortality and provide safe wildlife crossing opportunities
- Improve the flow of traffic and goods on Canada’s national highway
Improvements
Highway Twinning
The Trans-Canada Highway is gradually being upgraded from a two-lane undivided highway to a four-lane divided highway. This process is referred to as “twinning”.
Work began in Banff National Park in 1981 and progressed westward in phases. The first section of highway twinning in Yoho National Park, known as Phase IVA, was completed in 2018. Work extends 6 km from the Alberta / B.C. border into the east end of Yoho National Park.
Consultation on a draft Detailed Impact Assessment (DIA) for twinning the remaining 40 km of highway through Yoho National Park is complete.
There are currently no funds for construction.
Wildlife crossing structures
Highways fragment habitat that animals need to find food, shelter and mates. Collisions are also dangerous for people and wildlife. To mitigate these challenges, Parks Canada will build fencing and wildlife crossing structures to improve human and wildlife safety.
This work is already complete in Banff National Park. Lessons learned there will be applied to Yoho National Park. Additional research and monitoring in Yoho is also underway to help inform where crossing structures are most needed and how best to support wildlife.
Detailed Impact Assessment (DIA)
Detailed Impact Assessment (DIA)
Consultation on the draft Detailed Impact Assessment (DIA) for twinning the remaining 40 kilometres of the Trans-Canada Highway in Yoho National Park took place in 2020 and 2021. Feedback was used to refine the Detailed Impact Assessment.
The DIA, combined with public feedback and consultation with Indigenous groups, informed the Superintendent’s decision that the project may proceed when funding becomes available.
- What We Heard - Consultation Report
- Contact us at yoho.info@pc.gc.ca to request a PDF copy of final DIA
Contact us
For questions or more information regarding upgrades to the Trans-Canada Highway in Yoho National Park, contact: yoho.info@pc.gc.ca
Media inquiries
Yoho National Park, Public Relations and Communications
yohomedia@pc.gc.ca
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