location. New building In April 2011, it was announced that a new building for the Royal Alberta Museum would be built in Downtown Edmonton, north of the city hall and Law Courts, and east of the CN Tower, on the land formerly occupied by Canada Post's Edmonton station. The building, which contains twice as much gallery space, was estimated to cost $340 million, and was completed in 2015. Premier Stelmach and the Alberta government have said that the location of the new building could be used for the terminal of an Edmonton—Calgary high speed rail line, while the old location will be the site for a new residence for the Lieutenant Governor. Construction of the new building was completed on August 16, 2016, and the opening date of October 3, 2018, was announced on September 12, 2018. The new building is the largest museum in western Canada with more than of exhibition space and . The museum features expansive galleries chronicling Alberta's natural and cultural worlds, a feature gallery showcasing travelling exhibitions from Canada and around the world, an interactive, dedicated children's gallery, and a bigger bug room with live invertebrates and visible nursery. The total cost of the new building and moving is estimated around CAD $375.5 million, with $253 million from the Government of Alberta, and $122.5 million from the federal government Building Canada Fund.[5] Collection The collections are divided into four main categories: Life Science: Botany, Ichthyology/Herpetology, Invertebrate Zoology, Mammalogy and Ornithology Program – 577,745 objects Earth Science: Archaeology, Geology, Quaternary Paleontology, and Quaternary Environments – 9,224,075 objects Human History: Ethnology, Cultural Studies (formerly Folk Life), Military and Political History (formerly Government History) and Western Canadian History – 137,610 objects Collections Services: Collections Management, Conservation, Information Resource Management, Resource Library – 70,103 objects Between 1989 and 2001, 175 travelling exhibitions were displayed at the museum. Some of which include: Prehistorics Gigantics (1990), Whales! Bigger than Dinosaurs (1992), Sharks: Facts and Fantasy (1993), Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats (1994), Camosaurs! (1995), Bugsworld (1996), Genghis Khan (1997), Syria-Land of Civilizations (2001) and International Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2003). Galleries The following are current galleries operated by the Royal Alberta Museum: Natural History hall: This Hall contains a collection of dioramas, fossils, animals and plants that represents Alberta's wildlife. this hall contains four main sections: Ice Age Alberta (plants and animals that lived in Alberta