Getting around: Highway 43 opens to those looking to bypass Grande Prairie

The Highway 43 project purpose was to create a bypass for traffic to go around Grande Prairie instead of going through the city core and causing congestion.

Getting around

Highway 43 opens to those looking to bypass Grande Prairie

By SHAyNA WiWiErSKi

those driving near grande Prairie now have the option to bypass the city entirely instead of travelling through it.

the Highway 43 project, which officially opened to traffic on september 14, 2019, involved the construction of 12 kilometres of four-lane divided highway between range road 63 and east of richmond Hill. it also involved a roundabout at Highway 43 and range road 63, and three bridges crossing bear creek.

Highway 43 is part of the canameX corridor, which is used for transporting goods across north america. since the highway ran through the city of Grande Prairie, the project’s purpose was to create a bypass for that traffic instead of going through the city core and causing congestion.

“it used to see 27,000 vehicles a day through the city, and a lot of that is heavy trucks,” says ryan Konowalyk, regional director for alberta transportation in the Peace region. “so, we wanted to get outside that core and around the city, making movement more efficient.” the first stage of the project was completed in summer 2010, which involved four kilometres of four-lane divided highway from Highway 2 westward to range road 63. this current project took traffic from there and got it around grande Prairie, connecting west of the city back onto Highway 43. it also included a roundabout on a divided highway at the intersection of Highway 43 and range road 63. the roundabout opened in september 2018.

“We went and did the roundabout instead of putting something more traditional like traffic signals or a large expenditure like an interchange,” says Konowalyk. “We put the roundabout in… and it has done a fabulous job of moving traffic efficiently without creating a stop condition and the possibility for a t-bone intersection.”

the project was tendered in the middle of 2016 and construction started in the winter of 2016/2017. the total cost budgeted was $54 million and it was completely funded by the Province of alberta.

greenfield construction ltd. were the general contractors on the project and did a lot of the work themselves, including dirt moving,

The project also included a roundabout on a divided highway at the intersection of Highway 43 and Range Road 63. The roundabout opened in September 2018.

and cuts and fills to build the highway to the immediate subgrade. they had to import over 450,000 tonnes of gravel to be used as the base of the road and then place 147,000 tonnes of asphalt on top. the project also entailed numerous amounts of drainage culverts onto the road, the building of three bridge structures and culverts, and build a number of secondary roads and crossings across the highways, as well as some service roads and farmers’ access roads.

other gPca members who worked on this project include Knelsen Sand & Gravel and Checkmark Services Ltd.

since there was a considerable amount of earth moving with dirt, the abnormal weather conditions in 2018 made it quite a challenge in constructing this project.

“the biggest challenge for me was dealing with the weather and recovery periods after the abnormal weather,” says mike allain, project manager for the construction of the bypass at greenfield construction. “Weather is predominant on any project, but when it gets to be abnormal stages, then it has a real effect on any contractor.”

now that the bypass is officially open to traffic, Konowalyk says that the response has been positive. in addition to providing an option to bypass the city for truckers, he adds that it’s also been saving local travelers a considerable amount of time when driving from one end of the city to the other.

“We have had a lot of feedback; there were a few users who said that the bypass saves over 20 minutes of travel time for them,” says Konowalyk. “they would have lived on the west side of grande Prairie and they worked on the north side, so they previously would

In addition to providing an option to bypass the city for truckers, this project has also been saving local travelers a considerable amount of time when driving from one end of the city to the other.

have went through the city to get to work and now its saving them up to 20 minutes. So obviously, in today’s world with greenhouse

gas reductions, that’s all sort of a good news thing.” -

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