Roundabouts feature strongly in roadworks highlighted by the province, including this interchange south of Edmonton. Shown is the view from beside northbound Leduc traffic, heading towards a complex that allows merging onto the QE II or crossing it to reach Edmonton International Airport and other west-side businesses and services. Photo by George Lee
The recent government headline blared “Deerfoot Trail drives booming construction season” as the province talked up 2025 progress on roads, bridges and other linear infrastructure.
But Albertans in less populated areas also navigated plenty of flag persons, earth movers, exposed culverts and fresh black asphalt through the spring, summer and fall. And many of those folks rarely or never white-knuckle the Deerfoot during a hair-raising Calgary rush-hour.
“From south to north and everywhere in between, there have been a lot of big projects,” Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen told The Macleod Gazette in an interview last week. “It’s great to see all this progress.”
Building, replacing and maintaining infrastructure to match location, need and traffic load can be vital to rural Alberta, Dreeshen said. But arriving at funding is “both art and science,” and the calculation must also consider the needs of big-city cousins.
About two-thirds of Albertans live in greater Edmonton and Calgary. Many city residents go through their days without their tires touching a rural highway.
“But in a lot of the really remote areas, there might be just one road in and one road out, or just a handful of provincial roads they can use. So (provincial roads) are really important for keeping families connected or for just getting around.”
Rural rubber hits the road to haul grain and logs, and to service the oil and gas sector.
“The resource wealth of Alberta comes from rural Alberta,” said Dreeshen. “We need to have these good market roads and bridges so that industry uses them and to make them safe for families.”
Plenty of on-time, on-budget work this year is largely the result of a cooperative Mother Nature, said Dreeshen, the UCP member for Innisfail-Sylvan Lake.
Heavy spring rains started the season off with delays. But a dry fall allowed the province to catch up and then some, he said, praising crews and provincial staff for taking full advantage.
The province spent over three quarters of a billion dollars in 2025 under a three-year capital plan pegged at $8.5-billion. On this year’s progress list are 376 municipal projects — most of which involve the province as a funding partner — and 500 purely provincial projects.
Project sizes and scopes vary, but “it was a good year and those are some pretty high numbers,” said Dreeshen.
His ministry couldn’t break down total spending by region, but the release did note that the province completed about $82-million worth of paving and bridge work alone in southern Alberta, including 188 kilometres of asphalt.
In central Alberta, along with progress twinning Highway 11 between Sylvan Lake and Rocky Mountain House, nearly $63.5-million in new paving improved more than 175 kilometres of highway.
The news release calls Highway 11 “a key route for recreation, commerce and tourism.” Two phases are complete, and design is underway for remaining sections.
Two new roundabouts east of Camrose and on Highway 42 were also built in central Alberta.
For southern Alberta, Dreeshen highlighted success along the Taber-to-Burdett section of Highway 3 and how it fits the east-west twinning of the major southern Alberta route.
Seven more sections at different phases of planning and engineering remain, eventually joining Medicine Hat and the B.C. border with a twinned Highway 3. “That’s a big, transformational project,” Dreeshen said.
Base preparation and paving continued along the 46-kilometre Taber-Burdett stretch in 2025. Major construction will take up to three years, the government estimates.
Work progressed along the Cowboy Trail in Cochrane with the opening of a new interchange at Highway 1A. The project also included expanding Highway 1A from two to four lanes from just west of Highway 22 to east of Big Hill Creek; building two new bridges over the creek; replacing a CP Rail overpass on Highway 22; and building ramps and roundabouts in the new interchange.
The Peace Region reached “a major milestone” with the twinning of 10 kilometres of Highway 40 south of Grande Prairie, the news release says. Also included were bridge improvements, slide remediation, a vehicle inspection station and a new roundabout.
Bridge rehabilitations and truss replacements along Highway 88 “strengthened a critical northern transportation corridor,” the government said.
Work progressed on twinning Highway 63 north of Fort McMurray and on upgrading Highway 881 to include new passing lanes, rest areas and roadside upgrades.
Alberta has more than 64,000 lane kilometres of highways, which feature nearly 4,800 bridges or bridge-like structures.
Under the capital plan, $2.5-billion is earmarked for new roads and bridges and $1.7-billion for maintenance, renewal and rehabilitation.
Grants to municipalities worth $4-billion are in the three-year budget, along with $238-million for water management and flood mitigation.
But the “art and science” Dreeshen talks about are being wielded again as the government plans next year’s budget. A worldwide oversupply of oil won’t help any minister’s case, given Alberta’s reliance on royalties.
“There are lots of competing interests at budget time, whether it’s new school construction versus road or bridge construction,” Dreeshen said. “And that all weighs heavily on Treasury Board members.
“It’s something that happens every year, and I’ll do my best to make sure that I can get the proper funding to make sure that our roads, bridges and water infrastructure across the province are built up in a safe manner.”
