Designing for safety and continuity
The Trans-Canada Highway between Calgary and Banff National Park is one of Alberta’s busiest road corridors, carrying more than 22,000 vehicles a day on average, and up to 30,000 during peak season.
This region of Western Canada is also home to grizzly bears, elks, wolves and other wildlife species, resulting in a consistently high number of wildlife-vehicle collisions.
When the province launched plans for a new wildlife overpass on Highway 1 to reduce collision risks in Bow Valley Provincial Park, Egis supported the Peter Lougheed Wildlife Overpass project, contributing to a sustainable roadway design that blends into the landscape, preserves native vegetation and maintains habitat connectivity.
Key components of the project
As a subcontractor, Egis assisted with:
- Roadway design for a six-lane-ready highway
- Utility identification and relocation coordination
- Traffic staging and detour design
- Review of contractor traffic management plans and detour layouts
- Roadside barrier designs and submittal reviews
- Project survey and construction layout
The challenge was multifaceted. At this location, the Trans-Canada Highway follows Highway 1 through a narrow valley that serves as a critical east-west wildlife connector. Egis was involved in designing and coordinating roadway works beneath twin steel arch bridges, while assisting in the development and implementation of traffic management strategies throughout construction. The roadway also needed to accommodate future highway expansion, ensuring long-term adaptability.
Our regional knowledge and highway engineering expertise enabled the smooth delivery of this important wildlife infrastructure. The completed overpass features twin corrugated steel arches (one over each direction), supported by cast-in-place concrete footings, backfilled with gravel, and layered with clay and topsoil for planting.
