Alberta Provincial Highway No. 873, commonly referred to as Highway 873, is a highway in southern
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
, Canada. It generally runs north-south from Range Road 162 near the Hamlet of
Rainier, through the City of
Brooks to
Highway 550 in Village of
Duchess.
Route description
Highway 873 is a two-lane undivided highway in the
County of Newell that begins as an east-west route at the intersection of Range Road 162 and Township Road 164, west of Rainer. It travels east to the intersection of
Highway 36 where it becomes a gravel highway and continues east along the south end of
Lake Newell
Lake Newell is a large man-made reservoir in southern Alberta, Canada. It is located south of the city of Brooks, east of Veteran Highway. The reservoir was filled in 1914 through the construction of the Bassano Dam. It was named after T.H. Newe ...
to
Highway 535, where it turns north and continues towards
Kinbrook Island Provincial Park
Kinbrook Island Provincial Park is a provincial park in Alberta, Canada.
The park is situated at an elevation of and has a surface of . It was established on November 14, 1951 and is maintained by Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation.
It is ...
, where at the park entrance it once again becomes a paved highway.
[ Highway 873 continues north where it enters Brooks along 7 Street E where it follows a series of city streets, a short concurrency with Highway 542, and leaves Brooks along 2 Street W, the city's main commercial strip. It crosses the ]Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...
( Highway 1) at the city's northern boundary and continues north past Highway 544 to Duchess where it ends at the intersection of Highway 550. The roadway continues north as Range Road 144.[
]
History
The section of Highway 873 between Brooks and Duchess has had multiple designations in its history. Along with Highway 550, the route was originally designated as part of Highway 2, which at the time was an east-west inter-provincial highway that ran through Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
and Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, ...
(the present-day Highway 2 was designated as Highway 1).Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada†...
along the future Trans-Canada Highway, which was commissioned in 1949.
Major intersections
From south to north:
References
{{Alberta Provincial Highways, 2ndHwy=yes
873
__NOTOC__
Year 873 ( DCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Europe
* Carloman, son of King Charles the Bald, is hauled before a secular court an ...
Former segments of the Trans-Canada Highway