National Highway System (Canada)

National Highway System
System information
Length: 38,021 km (23,625 mi)
Formed: 1988 (1988)
Highway names
Interprovincial: Trans-Canada Highway (TCH)
Yellowhead Highway
Crowsnest Highway
Alaska Highway
Mackenzie Highway
Provincial: Varies by province
System links

The National Highway System in Canada is a federal designation for a strategic transport network of highways and freeways.[1] The system includes but is not limited to the Trans-Canada Highway,[1] and currently consists of 38,021 kilometres (23,625 mi) of roadway designated under one of three classes: Core Routes, Feeder Routes, and Northern and Remote Routes.[1]

The Government of Canada maintains very little power or authority over the maintenance or expansion of the system beyond sharing part of the cost of economically significant projects within the network. Highways within the system are not given any special signage, except where they are part of a Trans-Canada Highway route.

History

The system was first designated in 1988 by the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety, a council consisting of the federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Transport.[1] A total of 24,500 kilometres (15,200 mi) of highway were originally designated as part of the system. Highways selected for the system were existing primary routes that supported interprovincial and international trade and travel, by connecting major population or commercial centres with each other, with major border crossings on the Canada-United States border, or with other transport hubs.[1]

The system was further expanded in 2004,[2] with the addition of approximately 14,000 kilometres (8,700 mi) of highway that was not part of the original 1988 network.[1] It was in this era that the current "core", "feeder" and "northern or remote" classes of route were established.[1] Not all highways within the system are designated in their entirety, but may instead be part of the system over only part of their length; a few highways even have two or more discontinuous segments designated as part of the system. In some locations, the National Highway System may also incorporate city arterial streets to connect highway routes which are part of the system but do not directly interconnect, or to link the system to an important intermodal transport hub—such as a shipping port, a railway terminal, an airport or a ferry terminal—which is not directly located on a provincial-class highway.

Routes within the system continue to be maintained, funded and signed as provincial, rather than federal, highways. However, the federal government provides some funding assistance for important maintenance and expansion projects on designated highways through cost sharing programs.[3] For instance, several recent maintenance projects on National Highway System routes in Saskatchewan were partly funded under the federal government's Building Canada Fund–Major Infrastructure Component,[3] while several four-laning projects in Ontario in the 2000s accessed federal funding under the Strategic Highway Infrastructure Program.[4]

There is no single, ongoing program for federal contributions to the National Highway System;[5] rather, these contributions have been made through a variety of separate infrastructure investment programs of defined length and scope.[5] Recent transportation planning proposals have identified public-private partnerships and dedicated fuel taxes as possible mechanisms for providing more stable funding, although no comprehensive program has been implemented to date.[5]

The National Highway System has been criticized for lacking a truly comprehensive expansion plan.[6] In many parts of the country, the system relies on two-lane highways, or expressways which are not fully up to international freeway standards; according to Lakehead University economics professor Livio di Matteo, many parts of the system, even on the main Trans-Canada Highway portion of the network, still leave "the nation’s east-west flow of personal and commercial traffic subject to the whims of an errant moose".[6] American transportation planning academic Wendell Cox has also identified improvements to the system, so that Canada would have a comprehensive national freeway network comparable to the American Interstate Highway System, as an economically critical project for the country to undertake in the 21st century. It is faster, for example, to travel from Winnipeg or Calgary to Toronto through the United States than on Canadian highways.[7]

Routes

In its current form, the National Highway System includes routes in all Canadian provinces and territories except Nunavut, which has no conventional road connections to any other Canadian province or territory.[1]

Officially the system maintains three classifications of road: Core, Feeder and Northern/Remote. Within the core and feeder classes, the system's official register makes additional distinctions between conventional core or feeder routes and intermodal links or "anomalies", where a highway that does not meet the normal criteria for inclusion, or a municipal arterial road, has been adopted into the system to fill in a gap in the network. The "intermodal" and "anomaly" classes are not distinct designations, however, but simply represent an additional clarification of why the road holds "core" or "feeder" status—regardless, the tables below include "intermodal" and "anomaly" as separate classifications for clarity.

Alberta

The system includes 4,384 kilometres (2,724 mi) of highway in Alberta.[2]

Route Classification Segment(s) Length (km) Length (mi) Notes
Alberta Highway 1 C Entire route 536.4 333.3 Trans-Canada Highway
Alberta Highway 2 C Highway 3 to Edmonton
Donnelly to Highway 35 		555.6 345.2
Alberta Highway 3 C Entire route 324.1 201.4 Crowsnest Highway
Alberta Highway 4 C Coutts to Lethbridge 103.4 64.2
Alberta Highway 9 C Entire route 326.8 203.1
Alberta Highway 15 C Edmonton to Highway 28A 14.0 8.7
Alberta Highway 16 C Entire route 636.8 395.7 Yellowhead Highway
Alberta Highway 28 C Gibbons to Highway 63 36.6 22.7
F Highway 63 to Cold Lake 217.0 134.8
Alberta Highway 28A C Highway 15 to Gibbons 17.6 10.9
Alberta Highway 35 C Entire route 465.3 289.1 Mackenzie Highway
Alberta Highway 43 C Entire route 498.6 309.8
Alberta Highway 49 C Valleyview to Donnelly 76.6 47.6
Alberta Highway 58 N Rainbow Lake to Highway 88 196.6 122.2
Alberta Highway 63 C Highway 28 to Fort McMurray 363.4 225.8
Alberta Highway 69 I Highway 63 to Fort McMurray Airport 6.0 3.7
96 Avenue NE and Barlow Trail (Calgary) I Highway 2 to Calgary International Airport 2.9 1.8
Barlow Trail, 114 Avenue SE, 52 Street SE and Dufferin Place SE (Calgary) I Highway 2 to CP Rail terminal 3.4 2.1
Barlow Trail, 54 Avenue SE and 27 Street SE (Calgary) I Highway 2 to CN Rail terminal 1.9 1.2
184 Street (Edmonton) I Highway 16 to CN Rail terminal 0.9 0.56

British Columbia

The system includes 7,032 kilometres (4,369 mi) of highway in British Columbia.

Manitoba

The system includes 2,093 kilometres (1,301 mi) of highway in Manitoba.

New Brunswick

The system includes 1,825 kilometres (1,134 mi) of highway in New Brunswick.

Newfoundland and Labrador

The system includes 2,469 kilometres (1,534 mi) of highway in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Northwest Territories

The system includes 1,423 kilometres (884 mi) of highway in the Northwest Territories.

Route Classification Segment(s) Length (km) Length (mi) Notes
Northwest Territories Highway 1 C Alberta-NWT border to Highway 3 187.5 116.5 Mackenzie Highway
N Highway 3 to Wrigley 505.5 314.1 Mackenzie Highway
Northwest Territories Highway 2 C Entire route 48.6 30.2 Hay River Highway
Northwest Territories Highway 3 C Entire route 340.0 211.3 Yellowknife Highway
Northwest Territories Highway 4 N Entire route 69.2 43.0 Ingraham Trail
Northwest Territories Highway 8 N Entire route 272.5 169.3 Dempster Highway

Nova Scotia

The system includes 1,199 kilometres (745 mi) of highway in Nova Scotia.

Ontario

The system includes 6,007.8 kilometres (3,733.1 mi) of highway in Ontario.[2]


Prince Edward Island

The system includes 396 kilometres (246 mi) of highway in Prince Edward Island.

Route Classification Segment(s) Length (km) Length (mi) Notes
Prince Edward Island Route 1 C Entire route 120.0 74.6 Trans-Canada Highway
Prince Edward Island Route 1A A Entire route 20.0 12.4 Western connecting link between Highways 1 and 2, which only directly intersect at Charlottetown
Prince Edward Island Route 2 C Summerside to Charlottetown 59.0 36.7
F Charlottetown to Souris 77.0 47.8
F Summerside to Tignish 77.0 47.8
Prince Edward Island Route 3 F Entire route 34.0 21.1
Confederation Bridge C Entire route 8.0 5.0
Brackley Point Road I Highway 1 to Charlottetown Airport 1.2 0.75

Quebec

The system includes 5,649 kilometres (3,510 mi) of highway in Quebec.

Saskatchewan

The system includes 2,688 kilometres (1,670 mi) of highway in Saskatchewan.

Yukon

The system includes 2,027 kilometres (1,260 mi) of highway in Yukon.

Route Classification Segment(s) Length (km) Length (mi) Notes
Yukon Highway 1 C Entire route 945.0 587.2 Alaska Highway
Yukon Highway 2 C Yukon-Alaska border to Whitehorse 134.0 83.3 Klondike Highway
N Whitehorse to Dawson City 483.0 300.1 Klondike Highway
Yukon Highway 5 N Entire route 465.0 288.9 Dempster Highway

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "National Highway System". Transport Canada. December 20, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 National Highway System Review Task Force Report (PDF) (Report). Council of Ministers Responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety. September 22, 2005. pp. 36–41. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Cherry, Joel & Paquette, Michele-Jamali (February 28, 2014). "Core National Highway System in Saskatchewan to be Improved" (Press release). Government of Saskatchewan, Highways and Infrastructure.
  4. ↑ St. Louis, Ron & Marcolini, Tom (November 21, 2003). "McGuinty Government Secures Partnership To Improve Northern Highways" (Press release). Government of Ontario, Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.
  5. 1 2 3 Padova, Allison (February 20, 2006). Federal Participation in Highway Construction and Policy in Canada (Report). Parliamentary Information and Research Service Economics Division.
  6. 1 2 di Matteo, Livio & Simpson, Wayne (April 26, 2011). "Fix No. 1 Highway". Financial Post.
  7. ↑ Cox, Wendell (November 13, 2009). "A Canadian Autobahn". New Geography.
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