Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
It baffles me that a 6-lane divided highway (Stoney) can have the same 100 km/h speed limit as a single lane highway through the mountains (Revelstoke). And I won't even get started on the Hwy-1 limits through Banff park because that's an entire rant on it's own
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The story I've been told with regards to Hwy 1 through the park is that it's basically a result of inflexible Alberta highway codes. The federal government doesn't have their own so they go with what the provinces have, and Alberta didn't have anything specifically for a 90km/h divided highway. But this was despite knowing that the speed limit through the park was always going to be limited. The intention was never to have a 110km/h+ highway through the national park, it was just the only type of divided Highway the province had the specs to build so Hwy1 through the national park and Stoney are built to similar specs.
So essentially they overbuilt the highway for what they knew the speed limit was going to be, rather than the speed limit being set lower than what the road was intended to handle, the latter being the case for Stoney AFAIK. but again, this is just what I heard and I haven't really dug into it so I could just be regurgitating complete twaddle from a disgruntled engineer. Maybe Acey would have more insight.