Innovative Infrastructure Designs to Accommodate High-Loads and Over-Dimensional Loads Through the Fort McMurray Area

The Alberta Oil Sands (Oil Sands), located north of Fort McMurray are a major contributing factor in Alberta's economy, with billions of dollars spent each year on constructing facilities to extract bitumen from the Oil Sands. Many of the key components of bitumen are manufactured off site and hauled to various locations using Alberta's highways. Numerous loads are transported each day along Highway 63, which is a high-load (or over-dimensional) corridor, through Fort McMurray to the various Oil Sands plant sites to the north. Alberta Transportation (AT) must provide a high-load corridor that safely accommodates the general public as well as the transportation of oversized loads moved using transport vehicle combination units from the Nisku areas along Highway 63. Highway 63 is currently being designed as a twinned highway. Consideration is being given to widening the right travel lane to accommodate the wider trailers carrying the larger loads. Presently, in Fort McMurray from Morrison Street to Confederation Way, the existing four-lane divided rural highway is undergoing a staged construction of upgrades to develop a multi-lane freeway with collector-distributor lanes and core lanes. This includes 10 lanes crossing over the Athabasca River, high-load bypasses around Thickwood Boulevard Interchange and Confederation Way Interchange, and a removable interlocking median Vulcan gate barrier system (on wheels) that can be moved in a matter of minutes. A high-load bypass was constructed at Thickwood Boulevard Interchange using a tiered wall design that accommodates the current oversized design vehicle. For the covering abstract of this conference see record control number 201111RT334E.