Alberta to put $120M toward 66-kilometre highway twinning project west of Red Deer
By On-Site Staff
Financing RoadsThe Alberta government is setting the wheels in motion on a $120 million highway twinning project between Sylvan Lake, outside Red Deer, and Rocky Mountain House, just east of the Rockies.
Premier Jason Kenney and other officials announced the twinning work late last week, adding another major project under the province’s $10 billion recovery plan.
“Alberta’s government is taking every possible step to get folks back to work,” Kenney said in a release. “Infrastructure upgrades like this will create jobs today, while ensuring our roads and highways can support the needs of Albertans for years to come.”
The twinning project covers 66 kilometres of the David Thompson Highway, or Hwy. 11, that runs east/west through the central part of the province and eventually connects with Hwy. 93 at Saskatchewan River Crossing in Banff National Park. Currently a conventional two-lane road between Sylvan Lake and Rocky Mountain House, the project will twin the highway, improving traffic flow on the stretch of road used by about 5,800 vehicles on the average day, the province said.
The work is expected to create 344 direct jobs, as well as nearly 250 indirect jobs.
Design work for the project will start this year. Construction is expected to get underway in 2021 and run about four years.
