page_title: Alberta Highway 43
section_title: Twinning
hierarchical_section_title: Alberta Highway 43 / History / Twinning
caption_attribution_description: Highway 43, eastbound, west of Whitecourt, Alberta, Canada
context_page_description: Alberta Provincial Highway No. 43, commonly referred to as Highway 43, is a major highway in northern and central Alberta, Canada that connects Edmonton to the British Columbia border via the Peace Country, forming the northernmost portion of the CANAMEX Corridor in Alberta. It stretches approximately 495 km from Highway 16 near Manly Corner west of Edmonton to the British Columbia border west of Demmitt. It is designated as a core route in Canada's National Highway System, comprising a portion of a key international corridor that stretches from Alaska into Mexico.
  Highway 43 was originally numbered Highway 17, a short gravel road that ran only from Highway 16 to Onoway. It was later extended to Whitecourt and renumbered as Highway 43 in the 1940s, and an extension to Valleyview had been completed by the mid-1950s. In 1991 the highway was extended to included a portion of the existing Highway 34 from Valleyview to Donnelly, but was revised in 1998 to turn west through Grande Prairie, forming a contiguous route from Manly Corner to the border.
context_section_description: The initial twinning of Highway 43 began in the early 1970s with the first segment, from Highway 16 to north of Highway 633 (then numbered Highway 33), open by 1974.  Eight years later, the second segment was twinned from north of Highway 633 to west of Gunn.
  Twinning of Highway 43 then ceased for 15 years until a segment within Whitecourt from Govenlock Road/Mill Road, just east of the McLeod River, to east of 33 Street in Whitecourt's southeast end was opened by 1997.  Shortly after this segment was twinned, the Province announced an aggressive twinning program for the highway from Gunn to the BC border as part of Alberta's North-South Trade (CANAMEX) Corridor initiative.  By 1999, the twinning program saw its first two segments open – from Grande Prairie westward towards British Columbia (halfway to Wembley) and from Whitecourt eastward towards Edmonton (halfway to Highway 658).
  Two years later, the twinned portions of Highway 43 west of Grande Prairie and east of Whitecourt had been extended to Highway 724 serving Wembley and Highway 658 serving Blue Ridge respectively.  Also in 2001, twinning in three other locations was complete – from east of Highway 2 to west of Highway 733 (east of Grande Prairie), from the eastern boundary of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation through Valleyview to south of Highway 665, and from northwest of Fox Creek to southeast of Fox Creek near the Highway 947 intersection.
  In 2002, the two largest newly twinned segments of Highway 43 had opened to traffic.  The largest segment stretched from Whitecourt to west of Two Creeks.  The other segment stretched from west of Highway 733 to Crooked Creek, which included a realignment to bypass Bezanson. The interchange with Highway 2 north of Grande Prairie also opened to traffic on October 3, 2002.  By 2003, the first newly twinned segment in over 20 years at Highway 43's southeastern end was open to traffic – starting from west of Gunn and ending east of Highway 765 near Glenevis.  Also, the brief 2 km segment from Highway 2 (north of Grande Prairie) to east of Highway 2 opened upon completion of an interchange at Highway 2 and a grade separation over a CN rail line.  By 2004, three additional segments of Highway 43 had been twinned.  The first was from northwest of Fox Creek to near Giroux Lake.  The second was filling in the gap between Fox Creek and Whitecourt from west of Highway 947 to west of Two Creeks.  The third was from east of Highway 658 to east of Green Court/Highway 18.
  In 2005, three segments of twinned Highway 43 opened to traffic including 15.4 km (9.6 mi) from west of Fox Creek to west of Iosegun Lake, 19.1 km (11.9 mi) from west of Sangudo to west of Cherhill, and 14.1 km (8.8 mi) from west of Cherhill to west of Gunn.  The twinning of two additional segments of Highway 43 was completed in 2007, including 35 km (22 mi) from Asplund Creek (south of Highway 665) to west of Iosegun Lake (south of Little Smoky), and 18.5 km (11.5 mi) from east of Green Court to west of Sangudo. With these segments completed, over 300 km (190 mi) of Highway 43 was continuously twinned from Highway 16 to west of Valleyview.
  Also in 2007, the Government of Alberta announced that twinning of Highway 43 would go through the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation after previously deciding in 2006 to bypass it by routing the highway to the north side of Sturgeon Lake. Subsequently, construction of the remaining 36 km (22 mi) between Crooked Creek and Valleyview, including 17 km (11 mi) through the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, began in the fall of 2010 and was completed on Sept. 12, 2014.  In 2010, 13 km (8.1 mi) from Highway 723 east of Beaverlodge to Highway 724 at Wembley was twinned.
caption: Highway 43 eastbound, west of Whitecourt
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