Highway 63 is a highway in northern Alberta, Canada that connects the Athabasca oil sands and Fort McMurray to Edmonton via Highway 28, forming the Northeast Alberta Trade Corridor. 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 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 the 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 of the highway, a portion of Highway 28, and the entirety of Highway 28A.
Route Thorhild and Athabasca Counties Highway 63 begins as a two-lane rural highway approximately northeast of Edmonton in Thorhild County at an intersection with Highway 28, southwest of Radway. It splits to the north, first intersecting Highways 18 and 656 east of Thorhild, before continuing north through the hamlet of Abee after which it curves slightly to the northeast, paralleling a railway line. It proceeds on this northeasterly heading for less than before veering back north and intersecting Highway 661 in Newbrook. Highway 63 carries on through aspen parkland into Athabasca County past Ellscott to Highway 663 south of Flat Lake. It turns due east, concurrent with 663 for until the village of Boyle from which Highway 663 continues east past Skeleton Lake to Lac La Biche. Highway 63 carries on, curving back due north along the east shore of Flat Lake to its first intersection with Highway 55 south of the hamlet of Donatville. The two continue north concurrently, and beyond Skeleton Lake turns east through the hamlet of Grassland to an intersection at the southwest corner of Charron Lake near Atmore, marking the end of this second concurrency. Highway 55 continues east as an alternate route into Lac La Biche, and Highway 855 turns south to the town of Smoky Lake. Highway 63 turns north, becoming a divided highway soon thereafter.
Highway 63 continues through the aspen parkland of Athabasca County on a northeasterly heading, briefly following the northwest shore of Charron Lake before turning due north into the increasingly wooded terrain of northern Alberta. It crosses the La Biche River then parallels its east bank for the next . north of Atmore the highway reaches the hamlet of Wandering River, the only significant community between Atmore and Fort McMurray. Highway 63 crosses Wandering River and runs north through boreal forest, intersected by only a few minor local roads until northbound and southbound rest areas that lie and north of Wandering River, respectively.
Lac La Biche County and Fort McMurray After traversing the northern part of Lac La Biche County and entering the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, Highway 63 reaches an intersection with Highway 881 west of Anzac, nearly north of Wandering River. The highway veers slightly northwest, paralleling the Hangingstone River for the remaining of its journey to an access for Fort McMurray International Airport at Airport Road (formerly Highway 69), and the southern limit of Fort McMurray. In Fort McMurray, Highway 63 continues as a divided expressway along the east bank of the Hangingstone River through the communities of Gregoire and Beacon Hill. It then adopts the name Memorial Drive, curving slightly east and then back north before descending to cross the river after a diamond interchange at Prairie Loop Boulevard. Climbing from the Hangingstone River, a second diamond interchange at Hospital Street follows as the four lanes of Highway 63 bypass downtown Fort McMurray to the west, separating it from the neighbourhoods of Hilltop Estates and Aspen Gardens. The highway then turns west to cross the Athabasca River on three bridges. The northernmost bridge, the Athabasca River Bridge, carries three through lanes and two lanes from Franklin Avenue that eventually merge into the main northbound lanes on the west side of the river. The Ralph Steinhauer Bridge is in the centre, carrying the three main eastbound lanes. The Grant MacEwan Bridge is the southernmost crossing; it carries two lanes of eastbound traffic exiting from Highway 63 to Franklin Avenue and C.A. Knight Way downtown. On the river's east bank, the two lanes from the MacEwan descend into a short tunnel under the northern bridges to reach Franklin Avenue.
West of the river, Highway 63 and its brief collector-distributor system curve north to follow the Athabasca's west bank toward Fort McKay, passing the neighbourhood of Ross Haven en route to trumpet interchanges each at Thickwood Boulveard, Confederation Way, and Parsons Access Road, the last of which essentially marks the northern limit of Fort McMurray's residential development. The divided highway continues north alongside the river through boreal forest to Tar Island where it bends slightly northwest. The northbound and southbound lanes diverge as the highway passes between the Suncor Energy and Syncrude plants near Mildred Lake. The two carriageways then rejoin and the highway becomes undivided, but later a brief divided section precedes a second crossing of the Athabasca River on the Peter Lougheed Bridge. The Fort McKay Road splits to the north from the divided section prior to the river, providing access to the community of Fort McKay. East of the river, Highway 63 curves north along the east bank to a point approximately north of Fort McKay near the Fort MacKay/Albian Aerodrome, where the highway designation ends at an intersection with a dirt road.
Northern extensions The unnamed local paved road continues for another before becoming gravel. In the winter months, it carries on north to Fort Chipewyan on the western shore of Lake Athabasca as a winter road through the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, paralleling the Athabasca River. From there, the Fort Smith Winter Trail leads through Wood Buffalo National Park to Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, connecting to Northwest Territories Highway 5.
Traffic Divided for the majority of its length, traffic volumes on Highway 63 south of the Highway 881 junction near Fort McMurray remain relatively light despite the high number of fatal crashes. The volume is comparable to major two-lane highways in Alberta such as Highways 2A, 8, 22, 28, and 39. All are in the vicinity of 10,000 vehicles per day or more in rural areas, generally double the average of Highway 63. While Alberta has plans to twin at least a portion of most of these highways, no project has reached the construction stage nor been expedited like Highway 63. Until 2013, traffic levels had steadily increased on Highway 63, and an increasing number of trucks carrying large equipment caused traffic delays. Such loads often are wide enough to occupy two traffic lanes which impedes traffic in both directions, and as a result motorists have shared notice of super-wide loads on social media so that others could schedule their trips around them. The highway is the only route leading south out of Fort McMurray until its split with Highway 881, making it a critical link to Fort McMurray and the Athabasca oil sands. The economic importance of the area, the number of slow moving vehicles, and the absence of alternate routes are not generally reflected in annual traffic numbers, but were factors in the decision to expedite twinning of the highway.
Year-over-year, traffic decreased on Highway 63 in 2016 at most locations measured by Alberta Transportation compared to 2015. In Fort McMurray, traffic over the Athabascsa River decreased by nearly 12% in 2016 compared to 2015. In addition to the wildfire, Statistics Canada estimates that over 33,000 oil and gas related jobs were lost in Alberta from December 2014 to April 2016, likely reducing travel to and from Fort McMurray via Highway 63, and also on Highway 881 which has similarly decreased since 2013. Other 2016 estimates say more than 40,000 oilpatch jobs were lost since the end of 2014. Traffic levels increased again in 2017, nearly reaching 2015 levels over the Athabasca River in Fort McMurray, but trended downward again in 2018 and 2019.
+ Traffic volumes (2025) Location Volume Radway 3,280 Atmore 3,970 Wandering River 4,300 Highway 881 7,120 Hospital StFt. McMurray 34,840 Athabasca RiverFt. McMurray 55,170 Fort McKay 5,900
Collisions The road has earned the nickname "Highway of Death" due to a high number of fatal collisions. Between 2001 and 2005, over 1,000 crashes occurred on Highway 63 in which 25 people were killed and 257 others were injured. At least 149 people died between 1990 and 2012, 125 of which occurred on the 240-kilometre stretch between Grassland and Fort McMurray. The figure includes seven who died when two pickup trucks collided head-on near Wandering River on April 27, 2012. Days later, hundreds met at MacDonald Island Park in Fort McMurray to protest the slow pace of improvements to the highway. Many called for twinning of the highway to be expedited, with only of the province's original 240-kilometre commitment completed by May 2012. Some attendees carried signs adorned with the names of people who had died on the highway.