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 Highway 63 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Highway 63 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors | ||||
| Length | 433.910 km[2] (269.619 mi) | |||
| History | 1962 (construction begins)[a] 2006 (twinning announced)[b][c] 2016 (twinning complete) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end |   Highway 28 / Highway 829 near Radway | |||
 Highway 18 near Thorhild Highway 55 near Boyle Highway 881 near Cheecham | ||||
| North end | 22 km (14 mi) north of Fort McKay | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | Canada | |||
| Province | Alberta | |||
| Specialized and rural municipalities | Thorhild County, Athabasca County, Lac La Biche County, Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo | |||
| Major cities | Fort McMurray | |||
| Villages | Boyle | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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| National Highway System | ||||
Highway 63 is a 434-kilometre (270 mi) highway in northern Alberta, Canada that connects the Athabasca oil sands and Fort McMurray to Edmonton via Highway 28. It begins as a two-lane road near the hamlet of Radway where it splits from Highway 28, running north through aspen parkland and farmland of north central Alberta. North of Boyle, it curves east to pass through the hamlet of Grassland and becomes divided west of Atmore where it again turns north, this time through heavy boreal forest and muskeg, particularly beyond Wandering River. Traffic levels significantly increase as Highway 63 bends through Fort McMurray, crossing the Athabasca River before connecting the city to the Syncrude and Suncor Energy plants further north. It ends approximately 16 km (10 mi) beyond a second crossing of the Athabasca River northeast of Fort McKay.
The southern segment of Highway 63 from Radway to Atmore was built before the mid-1950s and numbered as Highway 46 until the 1970s. Construction north of Atmore on the first road connecting Fort McMurray to the rest of the Alberta highway system began in 1962. Upgrades in the following decades saw the two-lane highway widened and improved with the addition of passing lanes, and extended to its present terminus northeast of Fort McKay. Since 2004, the highway has formed the majority of the National Highway System core route between Fort McMurray and Edmonton, and in 2016 played a key role in the evacuation of over 80,000 people from Fort McMurray and the surrounding areas during a highly destructive wildfire.
Despite relatively low traffic volumes compared to other major highways in the province, the route has earned the moniker "Highway of Death" due to many fatal crashes. In 2006, Alberta committed to twinning[c] the 240-kilometre (150 mi) stretch from Grassland to Fort McMurray, but progress was initially slower than anticipated due to muskeg and wildlife restrictions. After a particularly high-profile crash killed seven people, the province announced an accelerated timeline for the project in 2012 and all work was completed in 2016. Alberta has long-term plans to create a divided highway for the entire length of the Edmonton–Fort McMurray corridor by similarly upgrading the southernmost 110 kilometres (68 mi) of the highway, a portion of Highway 28, and the entirety of Highway 28A.
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