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
highly destructive wildfire
2016 Fort McMurray wildfire
Alberta Highway 63