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| Highway 63 | |||||||||
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| Length: | 443 km (275 mi) | ||||||||
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| South end: | Hwy 28 near Radway | ||||||||
| Major junctions: |
Hwy 18, Hwy 55, Hwy 881, Hwy 69 | ||||||||
| North end: | Bitumount, 30km North of Fort McKay | ||||||||
| Counties: | Thorhild, Athabasca, Lac La Biche, Wood Buffalo | ||||||||
| Major cities: | Fort McMurray | ||||||||
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Highway 63 is a highway in Alberta, Canada that runs from a point on Highway 28 about 6 km (4 miles) southwest of the hamlet of Radway to Fort McMurray and further north to Fort Mackay, both of which are part of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. Much of the highway passes through boreal forest, although aspen parkland and farmland is predominant up to the Lac La Biche turn off. The highway also passed through the Athabasca Oil Sands development between Fort McMurray and Fort Mackay.
The highway sees an increasingly high volume of traffic due to the booming oilsands industry in Wood Buffalo, causing potentially serious transportation-related problems. Trucks carrying large equipment can delay the traffic greatly, since they can be large enough to occupy two traffic lanes. Most of Highway 63 is two-lane undivided highway, with the exception of just a few kilometres south of and through Fort McMurray to roughly 25 km (15 miles) north of Fort McMurray. It is also the only all-weather road leading out of Fort McMurray, which makes it a critical link to that fast-growing municipality.
After years of both public and political pressure, the provincial government has announced in February 2006 [1] that it would begin twinning the entire two-lane portion of the highway to a four-lane divided standard from Atmore to just south of Fort McMurray. The twinning began in 2006 and will take at least five years to complete. [2]
There were more than 1,000 crashes on the highway between 2001 and 2005, killing 25 people and injuring 257 others. [3] The highway has been referred to as Suicide 63.
Mile by mile
References
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