Fort Road & Manning Drive

Last updated
Fort Road & Manning Drive
Edmonton agglomeration-blank.svg
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Start/End points of Fort Road & Manning Drive
Maintained by City of Edmonton
Length19.6 km (12.2 mi) [1]
Location Edmonton
----Fort Road
Old Fort Road
Former name(s)Fort Saskatchewan Road, Fort Saskatchewan Trail, Fort Trail
Length18.0 km (11.2 mi)
South end 112 Avenue  / Stadium Road
Major
junctions
82 Street, 118 Avenue, Wayne Gretzky Drive, Yellowhead Trail, 66 Street, 137 Avenue, Manning Drive
North end Hwy 15 (Manning Drive) / Hwy 28A (17 Street NE)
----Manning Drive
Length14.4 km (8.9 mi)
South endFort Road / 137 Avenue
Major
junctions
50 Street, 153 Avenue, 167 Avenue, Anthony Henday Drive, Highway 28A
East endCity limits; continues as Hwy 15

Fort Road and Manning Drive is a major arterial road in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is a major route in connecting Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan formed on the west side of the Canadian National Railway line that itself formerly connected the two cities. Fort Road formerly connected Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan in its entirety and was part of Alberta Highway 15; however the section north of 137 Avenue was bypassed and named Manning Drive. Fort Road gets its name for its connection to Fort Saskatchewan, while Manning Drive is after Ernest Manning, the premier of Alberta from 1943 to 1968. [2]

Contents

Route description

Fort Road

Fort Road is a discontinuous roadway that runs in a southwest to northeast direction in the northeastern Edmonton. As the city of Edmonton expanded its grid street system, portions of Fort Road ceased to exist. Fort Road is divided into three major sections:

At the intersection of Fort Road and 66 Street stands the Transit Hotel, which opened in 1908. [3] This is in the Village of North Edmonton, annexed by the City of Edmonton in 1912.

Nearby Victoria Trail is built on a different trail that also was part of the Carlton Trail network. Where Victoria Trail ends, at 153 Avenue, Fort Road is nearby.

Another portion of the historic Fort Trail exists in Sturgeon County. Old Fort Trail comes off Manning Drive not far from where Fort Road terminated at 227 Avenue. It runs to the former crossing of the North Saskatchewan River into Fort Saskatchewan. The 1905 bridge was replaced for car traffic by a new bridge built in 1957 and then finally dismantled in the late 1980s. The bridge's piers still stand in the river, near the end of Old Fort Trail.

Manning Drive

Manning Drive is an expressway and the northern continuation of the central section of Fort Road. Beginning at 137 Avenue, it continues northeast and carries the urban section of Alberta Highway 15. The section of Manning Drive between 137 Avenue and 153 Avenue contains a wide median where the lanes could be converted to diamond interchange ramps; however there are no current plans to convert it to a freeway. North of Anthony Henday Drive, Manning Drive is a rural highway despite being located within Edmonton city limits.

Manning Drive was constructed in 1972 when Highway 15 was realigned from the historic Fort Road. At the time of construction, the majority of the roadway was located Sturgeon County, outside Edmonton city limits; [4] the remainder became part of Edmonton as part of the 1982 general annexation. Originally named Manning Freeway, it was renamed to Manning Drive in the mid-1980s. [5]

History

The original Fort Road was a trail part of the Carlton Trail, a fur trade trail system that connected Lower Fort Garry (near Winnipeg) to Fort Saskatchewan and Fort Edmonton; named after Fort Carlton which was located midway along the route. By the 1880s, Fort Road became an important connection between Edmonton and Fort Saskatchewan, and improved over the next few decades. [6] Fort Road originally linked to Jasper Avenue, but the southern sections were removed as Edmonton expanded and developed its grid system, with 82 Street linking downtown Edmonton with the remaining sections. Fort Road also were referred to as Fort Saskatchewan Road, Fort Saskatchewan Trail, and Fort Trail. [6]

When Alberta developed its provincial highway network, Fort Road was originally designated as part of Alberta Highway 16, with Alberta Highway 15 being designated to the route that connected Edmonton to Elk Island National Park; [7] however the designations were switched in 1940s. In 1972, Highway 15 was realigned and divided from its then-rural section of Fort Road and was named Manning Freeway (later renamed Manning Drive). Highway 15 followed Fort Road to Highway 15 until the 1990s, when it was rerouted to 50 Street. In 1995, Capilano Drive (later renamed Wayne Gretzky Drive) was extended from 120 Avenue to Fort Road, as part of the project a single-point urban interchange was constructed at Yellowhead Trail and through traffic from Fort Road was diverted to Capilano Drive. [8]

Major intersections

This is a list of major intersecting streets, starting at the south end of Fort Road. [9] The entire route is in Edmonton.

km [1] miDestinationsNotes
0.0–
0.6
0.0–
0.37
86 StreetDiscontiguous residential street with one-way sections (traffic calming)
82 Street
Gap in route
0.80.5080 Street / 118 Avenue
2.11.3 Wayne Gretzky Drive / 124 AvenueNorth end of Wayne Gretzky Drive
2.31.4Alberta Highway 16.svg Yellowhead Trail (Hwy 16) Single-point urban interchange, Hwy 16 exit 392; Wayne Gretzky Drive signed from Yellowhead Trail
3.11.9 66 Street
127 Avenue Southbound right-in/right-out
3.62.2Light Rail Sign.svg 129 AvenueAccess to Belvedere station
5.2
0.0
3.2
0.0
137 Avenue Fort Road north end; Manning Drive south end
0.50.31Alberta Highway 15.svg 50 Street (Hwy 15 south)South end of Hwy 15 concurrency
0.80.50Light Rail Sign.svg 142 AvenueAccess to Clareview LRT Station
1.10.68Miller Boulevard / 144 Avenue
2.11.3 153 Avenue
3.42.1 167 Avenue
3.8–
5.3
2.4–
3.3
Alberta Highway 216.svg Anthony Henday Drive (Hwy 216) Combination interchange; Hwy 216 exit 46
7.64.718 Street NW / 195 Avenue
9.96.2Meridian (1) Street N
12.37.6Alberta Highway 28A.svg Hwy 28A north (17 Street NE) / Fort Road
14.48.9Alberta Highway 15.svg Hwy 15 east Fort Saskatchewan Edmonton city limits; Hwy 15 continues northeast
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

Related Research Articles

Alberta Provincial Highway No. 2, commonly referred to as Highway 2 or the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, is a major highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Prairie. Running primarily north to south for approximately 1,273 kilometres (791 mi), it is the longest and busiest highway in the province carrying more than 170,000 vehicles per day near Downtown Calgary. The Fort Macleod—Edmonton section forms a portion of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Alaska to Mexico. More than half of Alberta's 4 million residents live in the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor created by Highway 2.

Alberta Provincial Highway No. 16, commonly referred to as Highway 16, is a major east–west highway in central Alberta, Canada, connecting Jasper to Lloydminster via Edmonton. It forms a portion of the Yellowhead Highway, a major interprovincial route of the Trans-Canada Highway system that stretches from Masset, British Columbia, to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, near Winnipeg. Highway 16 spans approximately 634 km (394 mi) from Alberta's border with British Columbia in the west to its border with Saskatchewan in the east. As of 2010, all but less than 96 km (60 mi) of the route was divided, with a minimum of two lanes in each direction. It is designated a core route in Canada's National Highway System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Henday Drive</span> Freeway that encircles Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Alberta Provincial Highway No. 216, better known by its official name of Anthony Henday Drive, is a 78-kilometre (48 mi) freeway that encircles Edmonton, Alberta. It is a heavily travelled commuter and truck bypass route with the southwest quadrant serving as a portion of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Canada to the United States and Mexico. Henday is one of the busiest highways in Western Canada, carrying over 95,000 vehicles per day in 2022 at its busiest point near West Edmonton Mall. Rush hour congestion is common on the four-lane section in southwest Edmonton, where traffic levels have risen due to rapid suburban development. Work began in fall 2019 to widen this section to six lanes by the end of 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberta Highway 14</span> Highway in Alberta

Alberta Provincial Highway No. 14, commonly referred to as Highway 14, is an east-west highway in central Alberta, Canada. It stretches from Edmonton through Wainwright to the Alberta–Saskatchewan border, running parallel to the more northern Highway 16. Highway 14 is about 257 kilometres (160 mi) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberta Highway 15</span> Highway in Alberta

Alberta Provincial Highway No. 15, commonly referred to as Highway 15, or Manning Drive within Edmonton, is a highway in the Edmonton Region of Alberta, connecting northeast Edmonton to the City of Fort Saskatchewan and communities within Lamont County. It serves as an alternative to Highway 16 that bypasses Elk Island National Park. The highway follows the route of a railway line completed in 1905 by the Canadian Northern Railway. In Edmonton, the most southerly portion of the route is named Fort Road, followed by Manning Drive to the north, a developing freeway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alberta Highway 16A</span> Highway in Alberta

Alberta Provincial Highway No. 16A, commonly referred to as Highway 16A, is the designation of three alternate routes off Alberta Highway 16 in Alberta, Canada. The Evansburg – Entwistle section is called 16A:08 by Alberta Transportation, while 16A:24 runs through Vegreville. The section west of Edmonton is labelled 16A:14 and 16A:16 on Alberta Transportation maps, but is better known as Parkland Highway and Stony Plain Road.

Transport in Edmonton is fairly typical for a Canadian city of its size, involving air, rail, road and public transit. With very few natural barriers to growth and largely flat to gently rolling terrain bisected by a deep river valley, the city of Edmonton has expanded to cover an area of nearly 768 km2 (297 sq mi), of which only two-thirds is built-up, while the metropolitan area covers around 9,430 km2 (3,640 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitemud Drive</span> Highway in Alberta

Whitemud Drive is a major east–west freeway in southern Edmonton, Alberta, that stretches from 231 Street at the western city limit to Anthony Henday Drive just east of Edmonton in Strathcona County. The portion in southeast Edmonton from Anthony Henday Drive to Calgary Trail / Gateway Boulevard is designated as Highway 14, and from there until Anthony Henday Drive in west Edmonton is designated as Highway 2. The portion of Whitemud Drive from 170 Street and 75 Street forms part of the Edmonton inner ring road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Groat Road</span> Parkway in Edmonton, Alberta

Groat Road is a major roadway in Edmonton, Alberta. It is named after Malcolm Groat, a former Hudson's Bay Company employee who settled in the present-day Groat Estates area in the 1880s. Groat Road is part of a 40-kilometre-long (25 mi) continuous roadway that runs through Sherwood Park, Edmonton, and St. Albert that includes Wye Road, Sherwood Park Freeway, Whyte Avenue, portions of University Avenue and Saskatchewan Drive, and St. Albert Trail. Groat Road functions as a grade-separated parkway between 87 Avenue and 111 Avenue.

170 Street is a major arterial road in west Edmonton, Alberta. It serves residential, commercial and industrial areas. Gervais Road / Hebert Road is a major arterial road in south St. Albert, Alberta, Canada. It serves residential and commercial areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Gretzky Drive</span> Road in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Wayne Gretzky Drive is a freeway in Edmonton, Alberta. Originally Capilano Drive/Capilano Freeway, it was officially renamed October 1, 1999, after NHL hockey player Wayne Gretzky, as a tribute to his years with the Edmonton Oilers. The same day, Wayne Gretzky's number 99 jersey was retired at the Skyreach Centre, which lies just west of Wayne Gretzky Drive, at 118 Avenue. 66/75 Street is a major arterial road in east Edmonton which serves residential and industrial areas.

Terwillegar Drive is a developing freeway in south-west Edmonton, Alberta. It is under construction, with the majority of its intersection at-grade, it retains its arterial road status. Once completed, it will be the third freeway in Edmonton not to have a highway designation after Groat Road and Wayne Gretzky Drive. South of Windermere Boulevard the roadway goes by 170 Street SW.

50 Street is the designated name of two major arterial roads in east Edmonton, Alberta. Separated by the North Saskatchewan River, it is mostly straight, and runs the entire south-north length of Edmonton as well as the suburb of Beaumont. The Yellowhead Trail and 50 Street junction is the start of Highway 15, it then goes north to Manning Drive, which it follows from there. Highway 814 used follow 50 Street between Edmonton and Beaumont, until the Beaumont government took control of the road. The northside section of 50 Street is presently segmented by the developing community of Cy Becker with grading in place for a future interchange at Anthony Henday Drive; however, there is no timeline for construction.

97/98/101 Avenue and Baseline Road is a major arterial road in central Edmonton and north Sherwood Park, Alberta. It connects Downtown Edmonton with the mature residential neighborhoods on the city's eastern edge, as well as Refinery Row and Sherwood Park.

Mayfield Road, 111 Avenue (Norwood Boulevard), and 112 Avenue is a major arterial road in north Edmonton, Alberta. It serves Edmonton's Northwest Industrial District, the former Town of Jasper Place (amalgamated with Edmonton in 1964), the inner city north Downtown Edmonton, and post-World War II Edmonton. Prior to the opening of Yellowhead Trail in the early 1980s, Highway 16 followed Mayfield Road and 111 Avenue between Stony Plain Road and 109 Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellowhead Trail</span> Freeway in Edmonton, Alberta

Yellowhead Trail is a 24.6-kilometre (15.3 mi) expressway segment of the Yellowhead Highway in northern Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It carries a significant amount of truck traffic to and from the industrial areas of north Edmonton and serves as a key commuter route for the bedroom communities of Stony Plain, Spruce Grove, and Sherwood Park, carrying nearly 80,000 vehicles per weekday in 2015. A suburban bypass of the route was completed when the northeast leg of Anthony Henday Drive (Highway 216) opened in late 2016, providing an alternate route through north Edmonton.

Calgary Trail and Gateway Boulevard are a pair of major arterial roadways in Edmonton, Alberta. Gateway Boulevard carries northbound traffic while Calgary Trail carries southbound traffic. From south of 31 Avenue, they form a two-way freeway separated by a median; for this portion, the roadway maintains the separate names for northbound and southbound traffic. Near 31 Avenue, Calgary Trail and Gateway Boulevard separate and become parallel one-way arterial roadways to Saskatchewan Drive, at the edge of the North Saskatchewan River valley. Designated as part of Highway 2 south of Whitemud Drive, it is Edmonton's main southern entrance and is both a major commuter route, connecting to the Edmonton International Airport and Leduc, as well as a regional connection to Red Deer and Calgary.

References

  1. 1 2 Google (August 16, 2023). "Fort Road & Manning Drive" (Map). Google Maps . Google. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
  2. The Honourable Ernest C. Manning, 1943-68 Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Transit Hotel Turns 100". Edmonton Journal. 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
  4. Edmonton, Alberta: Visitor Map and Guide (PDF) (Map). 1:42240. City of Edmonton. 1978. §§ G-0, G-1, H-0, H-1, J-0.
  5. "Manning Drive". Naming Edmonton. June 27, 2021. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  6. 1 2 "Fort Road". Naming Edmonton. June 27, 2021. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  7. Rand McNally (1940). Road map of Western and Central Canada (Map). Rand McNally and Company. § A7.
  8. "Transportation Infrastructure Management System - Existing Structures in the Provincial Highway Corridor" (PDF). Alberta Transportation. September 28, 2012. p. 92. Retrieved November 22, 2016.
  9. "City of Edmonton - Maps". maps.edmonton.ca. Retrieved 2016-06-12.
Template:Attached KML/Fort Road, Edmonton
KML is not from Wikidata