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]
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:
the central section between Wayne Gretzky Drive / Yellowhead Trail and 137 Avenue is a 4-6 lane arterial road, where it is the northern continuation of Wayne Gretzky Drive and is a southern continuation of Manning Drive; and
the northern section north of 153 Avenue is a rural road segmented by Anthony Henday Drive, finally terminating at 227 Avenue, near Manning Drive. As northeastern Edmonton has developed, sections of have been completely removed.
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.
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