At $110 million per KM, Kicking Horse Highway upgrade likely most expensive strip of road in Canada

Because of engineering and other challenges, construction on the highway probably won't start until 2019.

The dramatic Kicking Horse Bridge was part of an earlier upgrade on Highway #1. — Photo: Flatiron Corp

According to the Canadian Press, the Federal and British Columbia governments' recent announcement of a $469 million upgrade to two stretches of Highway 1 through Kicking Horse Pass in southeastern B.C., will include a section that could be the “most expensive stretch of road in Canada.”

B.C. Transportation Minister Todd Stone stated that most of the funding, $450 million, is for improvements to a four-kilometre section of the Kicking Horse Canyon east of Golden.

At an estimated $110 million dollars per kilometre, Minister Stone says the upgrades to Highway 1 through the steep canyon will likely make the roadwork the most expensive in provincial and Canadian history.

Work on the pricey section of highway east of Golden is expected to begin later this year, but engineering and other challenges linked to the Kicking Horse upgrade means construction probably won’t start until 2019 and will take some five years to complete.