Terwillegar Drive is a developing

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

in south-west

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. It is under construction, with the majority of its intersection at-grade, it retains its

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector r ...

status. Once completed, it will be the third freeway in Edmonton not to have a highway designation after

Groat Road 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 continuous roadway that runs thro ...

and

Wayne Gretzky Drive 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 da ...

. South of Windermere Boulevard the roadway goes by 170 Street SW.

Route description

Terwillegar Drive begins at

Whitemud Drive 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 Edmont ...

where Whitemud Drive turns from an east-west to north-south orientation as it approaches the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows event ...

, and is accessible via a modified

trumpet interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, usi ...

with left exit ramps. It travels in a southwest direction through the Riverbend and Terwillegar Heights areas, passing through three

split intersection A split intersection is a rarely built at-grade variant of the diamond interchange. Compared to a conventional four-leg intersection or road crossing, the arterial road is split into separate carriageways by , allowing a queue of left turning vehi ...

s that are staged for future

diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...

s. Terwillegar Drive crosses

Anthony Henday Drive Anthony Henday Drive (Highway 216) is a 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 C ...

and enters the

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

area. At Windermere Boulevard, another split intersection, Terwillegar Drive enters the southwest (SW) quadrant and becomes 170 Street SW, turning south. 170 Street SW continues south to

Ellerslie Road The following is a list of the east–west arterial thoroughfares in the city of Edmonton, Alberta. Numbered avenues run east-west with avenues numbers increasing to the north. In 1982 a quadrant system was adopted. Quadrant Avenue (1 Avenue; only ...

/ Hiller Road (Ellerslie Road was realigned from the 9 Avenue SW alignment, the original alignment is slated to be removed) where 170 Street is misaligned (aligned to the southbound and northbound off-ramps of a future diamond interchange) and continues south as a rural road. At 41 Avenue SW, the roadway enters

Leduc County Leduc County is a municipal district in Alberta, Canada that is immediately south of the City of Edmonton. It spans east to west and north to south, and has a population of 14,416. The municipal district is home to prairie parkland and several ...

and continues south as Range Road 253.

Future

The City of Edmonton is presently engaged in two planning studies to upgrade Terwillegar Drive and 170 Street SW to a freeway, which was originally envisioned in the 1980s. While the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

is protected, the interchange plans are still in the design stage and there is no timeline set for construction. It remains to be seen if the 170 Street SW section will be renamed ''Terwillegar Drive'', current planning documents refer to both names. Additionally, there are plans to extend the freeway into Leduc County, passing west of the

Edmonton International Airport Edmonton International Airport, as of August 29, 2022, officially branded YEG Edmonton International Airport is the primary air passenger and air cargo facility in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of the Canadian province of Alberta. Designat ...

, and then swing east across Highway 2 and join Highway 2A south of Leduc.

Neighbourhoods

Terwillegar Drive is the main spine and highway that travels through the Riverbend/Terwillegar/Windermere area of Southwest Edmonton. The list of specific neighbourhoods that Terwillegar Drive runs through, in order from south to north are:City of Edmonton map utility
/ref> * Ramsay Heights * Bulyea Heights * Rhatigan Ridge * Carter Crest * Falconer Heights * Leger * Haddow * Terwillegar Towne * Windermere Estates *

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern headwater) of Windermere, England's larges ...

* Keswick * Glenridding Heights * Glenridding Ravine

Major intersections

This is a list of major intersections, starting at the north end of Terwillegar Drive.

References

External links