Its president, Dr. O.F. Fansett, advocated for the road to be signed as "The Trans-Canada Red Trail" in addition to the existing red markings, and for the route be improved to an all-weather highway. By the late 1920s, the Red Trail remained a dirt road between Medicine Hat and Taber, but work began on gravelling the Lethbridge to Macleod section in late 1928 and was completed in January 1929. Crews then moved west and began gravelling between Pincher Station and Macleod. The mountain pass into BC was not open during the winter, nor was the dirt section between Taber and Medicine Hat that had not yet been gravelled. By 1928, the highway was envisioned to be part of a trans-Canada trail that stretched from Vancouver to Halifax. A 1929 map of major highways published by the Alberta Development Board listed Highway 3 as part of a southern branch of the Trans-Canada Highway that ran from Medicine Hat to Vancouver via Princeton and Spences Bridge in BC. This route included portions of present-day Highways 5A and 8, as construction of a road connecting Princeton and Hope did not begin until 1930. The northern branch connected Medicine Hat to Banff via Calgary. Work was also on-going to upgrade the road east of Lethbridge. In 1927, the Red Trail between Coaldale and Chin was gravelled, and the upgrading continued further east to Taber in 1928. In 1929, delegates from various communities along the route met in Taber to advocate to the provincial government for gravelling of the Red Trail from Taber to Medicine Hat. The Taber to Bow Island section was completed between 1929 and 1931, and a similar meeting was held in Lethbridge in 1931 lobbying for the remainder. The group included local officials, farmers and residents who argued that the Red Trail connected key population centres and irrigation districts in southern Alberta, and was a component of an interprovincial route from Vancouver to Winnipeg. The route was better known by tourists, they claimed, and was the only highway to the west that could economically be kept open year-round. At this time, British Columbia had done work to their portion of the highway allowing it to remain open year-round so it was desirable for Alberta to follow suit. The general sentiment among southern Alberta officials was that the Red Trail was a shorter and preferable route compared to the northern branch of the Trans-Canada through Calgary. Minister of Public Works Oran McPherson in 1934 announced that the section between Bow Island and Medicine Hat would be gravelled, permitting all-weather travel for the entire length of Highway 3.