Kinder Morgan may be avoiding the Highway 16 right-of-way with their upcoming Anchor Loop pipeline project, but any plans to twin the Yellowhead highway through Jasper park are many years away, according to Parks Canada.

In order to be considered for twinning, the average annual daily traffic along a stretch of road must reach a certain threshold. The most recent measurements on Highway 16 are well short of the required figure of 5,500 cars per day. 

In 2003, the federal agency recorded an average daily traffic flow of 3,310 and a Summer Average Daily Traffic Volume (SADT) of 5,160. Compare these figures to the numbers recorded along the Trans-Canada Highway between Lake Louise and Castle Junction in Banff National Park, a part of which is currently being twinned. That road had an AADT of 7,500, over and above the Parks Canada standard and the province of Alberta’s threshold numbers, according 

to Terry McGuire, Parks director of highway services for the mountain parks. The SADT was nearly 14,000, he added.

Indeed, the figures for Highway 16 do not even meet the requirements for instituting an alternating series of passing lanes, a traffic control measure taken by Parks Canada along the Trans-Canada Highway in order to delay the need for full highway twinning by ten to fifteen years.

The major reason that Kinder Morgan Canada plans to avoid the roadside is the relative longevity of the pipeline project. The original Trans Mountain line was laid in 1952 and more than fifty years later, the company has no plans to remove or replace any substantial part of that infrastructure. Given that the new Anchor Loop segments could be in place upwards of 100 years, the proponent has elected to stray from any site with potential use conflicts in the long-term, because the cost of relocating the pipeline would be extensive, both financially and environmentally.

As for the existing highway infrastructure that runs east to west through Jasper National Park, there are no plans in the near to medium term for any major road work, save for some construction on bridge surfaces east of Jasper. 

“Through informal discussions with each provincial ministry, we know that the Alberta government plans to twin Highway 16 right up to the east gate but in British Columbia, the government is still focused on the Trans-Canada,” said McGuire. “We may try to do some re-patching work the next time we have some money in the budget for that, but for now, there’s nothing to take advantage of.”

A re-patching and overlay project has commenced on the 24 kilometres of road between the east park gate and the town of Hinton, but delays are expected to be minimal this summer. It is the only road project scheduled for the Yellowhead between Jasper and Edson in the next three years.