Traffic Highway 1 Eastbound Chilliwack

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Elenor Waas

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Aug 3, 2024, 5:19:30 PM8/3/24

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UPDATE at 9:20 p.m.: DriveBC is reporting traffic along Highway 1 continues to be diverted as crews work to clean up following a semi-truck crash earlier Friday. DriveBC says eastbound traffic is still being diverted around the crash scene using the exit and entrance ramps at Prest Road. Westbound lanes have been cleared. Further updates will be made available through DriveBC social media channels.

According to scanner traffic, the driver of the truck is reportedly in care of BC Emergency Health Services. Emil Anderson Maintenance crews have been dispatched to clean up a large fuel spill and associated debris.

A call came in just before 4 p.m. that a truck had rolled over in the eastbound lanes at the Prest Road overpass. There were no immediate reports of injuries, and RCMP were directing traffic leading up to the closure.

He was travelling eastbound on the highway when he noticed the black Jeep Grand Cherokee in front of him was weaving back and forth and tailgating, so he decided to follow the vehicle and shoot video.

The segment of highway is operating at capacity during peak periods and there are vertical clearance issues for commercial vehicles. An interchange configuration at 232nd Street no longer operates well under current traffic volumes and will only get worse as volumes increase.

Further to the east, an existing railway crossing is set to be replaced and at 232nd Street an interchange will be reconfigured to provide more clearance over the highway. Construction on the interchange project is expected to start this year, with substantial completion set for 2026.

Advance works for the first part of the third leg of the project, which entails improving 13 kilometres of Highway 1 between the 264th Street interchange and Mt. Lehman Road in Abbotsford, began last fall with tree clearing, soil removal in the median and utility relocation.

More than $2.4 billion has been earmarked for the work, making it one of the most expensive provincial projects in B.C. The SkyTrain Expo Line extension and George Massey Tunnel projects are $4 billion each, the SkyTrain Millennium Line is $2.8 billion and replacement of the Pattullo Bridge is $1.4 billion.

The second part of the third leg will include improvements to eight kilometres of Highway 1 from Mt. Lehman Road to Highway 11. The project is presently in the design development stage. Advanced works began last fall and included tree cleaning and relocation of utilities.

The final leg of the project is in development and will include improvements to a 17-kilometre stretch from the Highway 11 interchange through the Sumas Prairie into Chilliwack. The plan is to widen the highway. The provincial and federal governments are working with local government and First Nations to develop a regional flood mitigation strategy through the Sumas Prairie.

While the other parallel routes in the system are also technically part of the Trans-Canada Highway, they are usually considered either secondary routes or different highways altogether. For example, Highway 16 throughout Western Canada is part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, but is almost exclusively referred to as the Yellowhead Highway and is often recognized as its own highway under that name. In comparison, Highway 1 in Western Canada is always referred to as the Trans-Canada Highway, and has a significantly higher traffic volume with a route passing through more major cities than the less important Highway 16 (Yellowhead) TCH route. Therefore Highway 1 is usually considered to be part of the main Trans-Canada Highway route, while Highway 16 is not, although it may be considered a second mainline corridor as it serves a more northerly belt of major cities, as well as having its own Pacific terminus.

Although the TCH network is strictly a transcontinental system, and does not enter any of Canada's three northern territories or run to the United States border, it does form part of Canada's overall National Highway System (NHS), which provides connections to the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and the border, although the NHS (apart from the TCH sections) is unsigned.[5]

Unlike the Interstate Highway System in the United States, the Trans-Canada Highway system has no national construction standard, and it was originally built mostly as a two-lane highway with few multi-lane freeway sections, similar to the older United States Numbered Highway System. As a result, highway construction standards vary considerably among provinces and cities. In much of British Columbia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador, the Trans-Canada Highway system is still in its original two-lane state. British Columbia is[when?] actively working on converting its section of Highway 1 east of Kamloops to a four-lane divided highway.[6] Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have widened most of their southern Trans-Canada Highway network to four lanes. In Quebec, most sections of the TCH network overlap with the province's Autoroute freeways. New Brunswick is the only province to have its whole length of the main Trans-Canada Highway route at a four-lane freeway standard.[citation needed]

Like the former U.S. Route 66, the many non-expressway sections of the Trans-Canada Highway often form the main streets of communities, with homes and businesses directly adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway.

The Trans-Canada Highway is not always the preferred route between two cities, or even across the country. For example, the vast majority of traffic travelling between Hope and Kamloops, British Columbia, takes the Coquihalla Highway via Merritt, rather than the longer Trans-Canada Highway route.[citation needed] Another example is that much long-distance traffic between Western and Eastern Canada will drive south into the United States and use the Interstate Highway System, rather than the Trans-Canada Highway through Northern Ontario.[citation needed]

The main Trans-Canada Highway is uniformly designated as Highway 1 across the four western provinces. The British Columbia section of Highway 1 is 1,045 km (649 mi) long, beginning in Victoria at the intersection of Douglas Street and Dallas Road (where the "Mile 0" plaque stands), and ending on the Alberta border at Kicking Horse Pass. The highway starts by passing northward along the east coast of Vancouver Island for 99 km (62 mi) to Nanaimo along a mostly-four-lane, heavily-signalized highway. After passing through downtown Nanaimo on a small arterial road, it enters the Departure Bay Terminal and crosses the Strait of Georgia to Horseshoe Bay via BC Ferries. From there, it travels through Metro Vancouver on a four-to-eight-lane freeway before leaving the city and continuing as a four-lane freeway eastward up the Fraser Valley to Hope. There, the Trans-Canada Highway exits the freeway and turns north for 186 km (116 mi) through Fraser Canyon and Thompson Canyon toward Cache Creek, mostly as a two-lane rural highway with only occasional traffic lights. Approaching Kamloops, Highway 1 re-enters a short freeway alignment (briefly concurrent with Highways 5 and 97), before passing through Kamloops itself as a four-lane signalized highway. From Kamloops, the highway continues east as a mostly-two-lane rural highway through the Interior of British Columbia, with occasional passing lanes. It widens to a signalized four-lane arterial road for short stretches in Salmon Arm, Revelstoke, and Golden, but has no signal lights on it for most of its length. The highway crosses two high passes along its route: Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, and Kicking Horse Pass in Yoho National Park. At Kicking Horse Pass, the highest point on the whole Trans-Canada Highway system is reached, at 1,627 m (5,338 ft).

The Trans-Canada Highway through the three prairie provinces is 1,667 km (1,036 mi) long. It starts at the border with British Columbia at Kicking Horse Pass, and runs all the way to the Ontario border at Whiteshell. The highway continues through Alberta, running east for 206 km (128 mi) as Alberta Highway 1 to Lake Louise, Banff, Canmore, and Calgary. This section of the highway passes through Banff National Park and has significant tourism. The section of Highway 1 through Banff National Park was also one of the first highways in North America to have wildlife crossing structures and fencing installed on it[citation needed]. After leaving the mountains it enters Calgary, where it becomes known as 16 Avenue N, a busy six-lane street with many signalized intersections.[7] For the next 293 km (182 mi) after Calgary, the Trans-Canada Highway continues as a four-lane expressway, with few stops along its route. Medicine Hat is served by a series of six interchanges, after which the Trans-Canada crosses into Saskatchewan on the way to Moose Jaw.[7] The highway mainly travels straight as a four-lane route for most of these sections. The expressway continues 79 km (49 mi) east to the city of Regina, and skirts around the city on the Regina Bypass, the most expensive infrastructure project in Saskatchewan to date[as of?]. Beyond Regina, it continues east for 486 km (302 mi), across the border with Manitoba, to the cities of Brandon and Portage la Prairie, and finally 84 km (52 mi) east to Winnipeg.[8] The southern portion of Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway (Highway 100) is part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, and bypasses the city with a mix of traffic lights and interchanges, while Highway 1 continues through central Winnipeg as a signalized arterial road.[8]

With the exception of a 15.3-kilometre-long (9.5 mi) stretch of two-lane highway just west of the Ontario border, the entire length of Highway 1 through the Prairie Provinces is a four-lane highway. While the only true freeway sections of the route are along the Regina Bypass, in Medicine Hat, and between Calgary and Banff, the whole highway is largely stoplight-free, with "split" at-grade intersections forming the vast majority of the junctions.