Anthony Henday Drive
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| Anthony Henday Drive | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by Alberta Transportation | ||||
| Length: |
69 km[1] (43 mi) Planned: 78 km (48 mi) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| Ring road around Edmonton | ||||
 Hwy 2 Hwy 16A Hwy 16 (TCH) Hwy 28 Hwy 15 Hwy 100 Hwy 14 | ||||
| Location | ||||
| Specialized and rural municipalities: | Strathcona County | |||
| Major cities: | Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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Provincial highways in Alberta
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Anthony Henday Drive, designated Alberta Provincial Highway No. 216 by Alberta Transportation,[2] is a ring road highway around Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is currently under construction and named after Alberta explorer Anthony Henday.
Nearly 90% of the road is completed and open to traffic. It starts in east Edmonton at Yellowhead Trail (Highway 16) and travels south to Highway 14, then west past Gateway Boulevard / Calgary Trail (Highway 2) and across the North Saskatchewan River to the Cameron Heights neighbourhood, then north past Whitemud Drive, Stony Plain Road and Yellowhead Trail to Ray Gibbon Drive, and then east past St. Albert Trail and 97 Street to currently end at Manning Drive. The highway designation 216, denotes its bypass linkages to the two major crossroads of Edmonton, Highway 2 and Highway 16. A similar ring road, Highway 201, is also being constructed around the City of Calgary.
The free-flowing northwest leg of Anthony Henday Drive from Yellowhead Trail in the west to Manning Drive in the northeast opened on November 1, 2011.[1] An estimated 40,000 motorists use Anthony Henday Drive daily.[3] Upon completion in 2016, Anthony Henday Drive will be the first free-flowing orbital road in Canada.[4]
History and past construction
The eastern leg from Yellowhead Trail to Highway 14 was already an existing highway for several decades; it was formerly known as Highway 14X.
The Alberta provincial government developed the ring road plan during the 1970s and purchased the land for this purpose. This encircling land became known as the Transportation and Utility Corridor, ("utilities" being both overhead high-voltage transmission lines, and underground gas and oil pipelines), TUC for short on engineering drawings.[5]
The western leg from Yellowhead Trail to Whitemud Drive was constructed by the City of Edmonton during the 1990s, prior to the province taking over responsibility of the project. The 87 Avenue and Whitemud Drive interchanges were built, and the southwestern leg from Whitemud Drive to Calgary Trail / Gateway Boulevard was completed by October 2006.[6] This section was the highest priority for construction due to its CANAMEX designation, providing a link between Highway 2 south and Highway 16 west. It became entirely free-flowing on November 2, 2011. The total distance of the southwestern leg from Yellowhead Trail to Gateway Boulevard is 24 km (15 mi).
Construction of the 11 km (6.8 mi) southeastern section from Calgary Trail / Gateway Boulevard to Highway 14 began in April 2005 and was completed in October 2007. The southeastern section was built through a public-private partnership (P3 — also known as a design-build-operate project), in which Access Roads won the contract for $493 million to build the road and maintain it for 30 years.[7]
On the northern section of Anthony Henday Drive, construction of the interim segment from Highway 16 in the west to 137 Avenue was partially completed as part of St. Albert's West Regional Road (Ray Gibbon Drive) project. Construction of the entire 21 km (13 mi) northwest leg from Yellowhead Trail to Manning Drive (Highway 15) was started in September 2008, through the provincial government's signing of a $1.42 billion P3 agreement with Northwestconnect General Partnership to build and maintain the road for 30 years.[8] This leg opened to traffic on November 1, 2011.[1]
Current and future construction
The remaining 9 km (5.6 mi) leg in the northeast, from Manning Drive to the Yellowhead Highway in east Edmonton, began construction in July 2012, and is targeted for completion in the fall of 2016.[9] This project will also include the reconstruction and upgrading of 18 km (11 mi) of existing highway that was previously repurposed for Anthony Henday Drive between Yellowhead Trail and Whitemud Drive. Portions of Yellowhead Trail and Sherwood Park Freeway will also be enhanced.[9] Overall, the project will include the construction of nine interchanges, two road flyovers, eight rail flyovers and twin bridges over the North Saskatchewan River for a total of 46 bridge structures.[9] As with the southeast and northwest legs, a P3 was selected to build and maintain the northeast portion for 30 years after construction, for a cost of $1.81 billion.[10]
Interchanges and intersections
Eventually the entire route will have freeway status, which means grade separation at all crossings to allow free-flow traffic. This is a list of all the intersections (completed and planned) starting at the southern Highway 2 crossing, heading clockwise.
References
Notes
- A flyover was originally planned on the western leg at 69 Avenue before it was ultimately scrapped by Alberta Transportation.[16][17]
Sources
- 1 2 3 "Open road beckons drivers in northwest Edmonton". Government of Alberta. November 1, 2011. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
- ↑ Provincial Highways Designation Order, Alberta Transportation, p. 10
- ↑ Earle, Jessica (October 11, 2011). "Henday will be done by Nov 1: Province". ctvedmonton.ca. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
- ↑ Taylor, Aaron (August 15, 2013). "A year of Henday construction done". Fort Saskatchewan Record. Sun Media. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
- ↑ "Transportation/Utility Corridors" (PDF). Government of Alberta. 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
- ↑ "Drivers caught in traffic as bridge work continues". CBC News. October 12, 2006. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ↑ "Access Roads Edmonton". Retrieved December 27, 2011.
- ↑ "Construction set to begin on north Edmonton ring road". Government of Alberta. July 30, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
- 1 2 3 "Construction digs-in on final leg of Edmonton ring road" (PDF). Government of Alberta. July 16, 2012. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
- ↑ "P3 project reaches financial close". Government of Alberta. May 18, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
- ↑ ISL Engineering / Al-Terra Engineering (March 2010). "170 Street" (PDF). Concept Planning Study. City of Edmonton. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
- 1 2 "Stony Plain Road Long Term Planning Study" (PDF). Al-Terra Engineering. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
- 1 2 "Schedule 18, Appendix A – Drawings Issued for Agreement" (PDF). Alberta Transportation. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- 1 2 "Stelmach makes Henday announcement". iNews 880. March 2, 2011. Retrieved March 2, 2011.
- 1 2 "Northeast Edmonton Ring Road – Ultimate Plan Profile (2.5 Million Regional Population)" (PDF). Government of Alberta. June 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
- ↑ "City opts to add signage along contested Ormsby Road". CBC News. September 13, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2014.
- ↑ City of Edmonton (January 2007). "Glastonbury Neighbourhood Structure Plan" (PDF). City of Edmonton. p. 49. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
External links
- Alberta Transportation - Edmonton Ring Road
- 2010 Provincial Highways 1 - 216 Series Progress Chart (map, 8 MB) by Alberta Transportation.
- Capital City Link Group - Northeast Anthony Henday Drive
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