Abstract Manager

Canada’s National Parks are world renowned for their beauty and variety of tourist landmarks and activities. To provide access to these destinations, Parks Canada maintains almost 1,000 kilometres of primary highway in Western Canada in addition to hundreds of kilometres of local access roads.

These highways also serve a major role in the inter-regional transportation network. The Trans-Canada Highway passes through four different National Parks and accommodates an estimated $24B worth of freight annually.

Roads within the Western National Parks have many unique, and often challenging, characteristics when it comes to road safety, including:

• High-volume and high-speed segments
• Mix of unfamiliar drivers, tourists, and inter-regional goods movement
• Mountainous topography with steep grades, curvilinear alignments, and rocky terrain
• Inclement weather including snow, flooding, and avalanches
• Highly sensitive environmental considerations, including wildlife protection

Since 2009, McElhanney Ltd. has worked closely with Parks Canada to develop and implement a road safety program that reduces the collision risk within the Western National Parks. Highlights of the program that will be discussed during the presentation, include:

Collision Database:  McElhanney created a collision database to track collision trends, such as collision rate, location, type, severity, environmental and road conditions. This database is regularly updated and reviewed to identify collision hot spots, monitor collision trends, and assess the safety effectiveness of road improvement projects.

Spot and Corridor Improvements: Locations that could benefit from road safety improvements are identified through various methods, including hot spot analysis, In-Service Road Safety Reviews, and stakeholder consultation. In addition, safety improvements are also incorporated into other road improvement projects, such as traffic operations or visitor experience enhancements.

In-Service Road Safety Reviews: McElhanney conducted In-Service Road Safety reviews along the entirety of all primary highways. These comprehensive reviews established a baseline inventory of safety-related improvements to be implemented in the future, either independently or in conjunction with other roadway improvement projects. Regular reviews and updates will aid in tracking progress, prioritizing future improvements, and identifying any new safety issues that may have developed.

During the presentation, an overview of the safety program will be provided, including specific examples of implemented road safety enhancements and the findings of any before/after assessments. Through the presentation, attendees will learn about:

• The value of tracking and analyzing collision data
• Common road safety challenges in Canada’s Western National Parks
• Improvement options to mitigate these challenges, including specific examples