Top 10 Alberta engineering and geoscience marvels to visit this summer

Image taken from visitlethbridge.com and southernalberta.com.

All around us are examples of the kind of ingenuity and expertise demonstrated by Alberta’s professional engineers and geoscientists. Oftentimes, we travel right past them without registering the level of skill and professionalism needed to execute such impressive spectacles. Whether you are taking a stroll in your downtown or taking a road trip across our province, here are 10 spectacles that wouldn't have been possible without professional engineers and geoscientists.

Lethbridge Viaduct High Level Bridge

Originally constructed between 1907 and 1909 at a cost of approximately $1.3 million (equivalent to $30 million today), this 1,600-metre bridge that traverses the Oldman River stands at a whopping 96 metres high. The entire viaduct actually consists of two bridges, one in Lethbridge and one much smaller bridge in Monarch. At the time, bridges that were constructed for crossing a water body as large as the Oldman River were expected only to last 10 years. With the two-bridge design, Chief Engineer John Edward Schwitzer devised a route that required less steel than originally planned, which made for a safer and more direct route.

Leduc No. 1

This is the launch point of Alberta’s energy boom thanks to Imperial Oil’s Chief Geologist Ted Link, who believed that greater oil reserves could be accessed deeper underground. Prior to construction, Imperial Oil had acquired the rights to more than 200,000 acres of land in the region southwest of Edmonton and had completed 133 dry-hole drilling projects before Leduc No. 1 without any major discoveries. Link’s team finally hit the deposit at 1,500 metres. During its tenure, Leduc No. 1 produced 317,000 barrels of oil and 9,100,000 cubic metres of natural gas before decommissioning in 1974. Today, the derrick used for the Leduc No. 1 project still stands at the Canadian Energy Museum outside of Edmonton — only a few hundred metres from the original drilling site.

Glacier Skywalk

Ever feel like you’re walking on air? Standing at 280 metres above the Sunwapta Valley in Jasper National Park, this 30-metre-long curved glass structure uses a self-anchored cable-suspension system. This means the glass panes are supported only on the outer edges, which leaves each pane open and gives guests the feeling they are defying gravity. Lead designer and structural engineer on this project, Read Jones Christoffersen, and his team from PCL Construction earned a World Architecture Award for their spectacular work. The team focused its efforts on balancing an architectural marvel with preserving the natural landscape surrounding it, thereby ensuring visitors could get the most out of their view of the more than 100 glaciers.

Peace Bridge

More reminiscent of the transport tubes from Logan’s Run than any footbridge seen in most Alberta cities, Calgary’s Peace Bridge is the brainchild of Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. He faced an uphill challenge in balancing how to keep the bridge high enough to accommodate Calgary’s flood cycle, while low enough to not interfere with traffic from the nearby Bow River heliport. The 130-metre-long bridge dedicated for pedestrian and bicycle use sees 6,000 people a day cross its span and was listed by Azure magazine as one of the top 10 architectural projects of 2012.

Bow Tower

Often touted as the starting point for Calgary’s Downtown East Village revitalization, the spectacular Bow Tower was the tallest office building in Calgary at the time of its completion in 2012. The 236-metre-tall structure designed by the UK’s Foster + Partners and Toronto’s Zeidler Partnership Architects earned Calgary its second spot on Azure magazine’s top architectural projects of 2012 list. Though primarily constructed to be an office building, the Bow Tower is also home to multiple public art installations, including the Wonderland Sculpture from Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa located at the entrance of the building.

Walterdale Bridge

With its distinctive arches and views down into Edmonton’s pristine river valley, the new Walterdale Bridge is often referred to as the most Instagrammable spot in Alberta’s capital city. The 230-metre-long structure connects Edmonton’s south side with its central and northern neighbourhoods. The original bridge was constructed in 1913 and contained multiple similar, but smaller, archways to those in the new bridge that opened in 2017. However, the new bridge’s smooth curvature and singular support arch spanning the whole bridge’s length are what makes it stand out as an engineering marvel worth noting.

Big Rock Glacial Erratic

A glacial erratic is a rock formation that’s been carried hundreds of kilometres by a glacier and is generally composed of rock not typically found in its area. In the case of the Okotoks Big Rock glacial erratic, the 16,500-tonne boulder quartzite sits on the Foothills Erratics Train (eight kilometres outside of the Okotoks township) and measures about 41 by 18 metres and nine metres high. The massive angular boulder, which is split in two, holds major significance for the Blackfoot Nation as a medicine rock. In the 1970s, it was declared a provincial historic site.

Icefields Parkway

Who knew a highway could attract so much attention? Thanks to the ingenuity of civil engineers, Highway 93 between Jasper and Lake Louise in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains has become an attraction itself. The 268-kilometre stretch of road linking two of Alberta’s busiest tourist destinations has a history that extends back to 1827, when expeditions from the Hudson's Bay Company tried mapping routes through the mountains. It wasn’t until the 1930s that construction would begin, providing more than 600 jobs to a province reeling from the Great Depression. Each crew was only given one tractor, meaning the bulk of the road was built by hand with pickaxes and shovels. This hard work has given us a route that contains more than 100 natural phenomena, including lakes, glaciers, waterfalls, forests, and wildlife.

Brazeau Dam

Located a half-hour drive from Drayton Valley, the Brazeau Dam sits where the Brazeau River and the Elk River meet at the basin of the North Saskatchewan River. The available water supply gives this dam an annual output production capability of 408,000 megawatt hours, making it the largest hydroelectric dam in Alberta. It also uses a pump-back system that allows the dam to lift water from the outflow—pulling water from upwards of 20 kilometres away, accommodating for times when the reservoir water levels are low. Nearby is the Brazeau Reservoir Provincial Recreation Area, a nature reserve with three campground sites along the shore upstream from the dam. 

Oil Sands Discovery Centre

Located in the heart of the world’s single largest oil deposit (Fort McMurray’s Athabasca Oil Sands), the Oil Sands Discovery Centre highlights the history, science, technology and impacts from Alberta’s longstanding energy industry. As an educational site, its provides a holistic view into the different facets comprising Alberta’s energy sector—specifically the hard work and ingenuity needed to make the oil sands thrive and ensure Albertans can benefit from the rich resources located right below their feet.