Fort Road and Manning Drive is a major arterial road in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, Alberta, Canada. It is a major route in connecting Edmonton and

Fort Saskatchewan Fort Saskatchewan is a city along the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta, Canada. It is northeast of Edmonton, the provincial capital. It is part of the Edmonton Capital Region#Edmonton CMA, Edmonton census metropolitan area and one of 24 muni ...

formed on the west side of the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue a ...

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 Ernest Charles Manning (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996) was a Canadian politician and the eighth premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in the province' ...

, the premier of Alberta from 1943 to 1968.

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 southern section between 112 Avenue northeast to

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 ...

is a

collector road A collector road or distributor road is a low-to-moderate-capacity road which serves to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collector roads are designed to provide access to residential properties. Rarely, juris ...

through established residential neighbourhoods; *the central section between

Yellowhead Trail Yellowhead Trail is a expressway segment of the Yellowhead Highway ( Highway 16) 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 ...

and 137 Avenue is a 4-6 lane

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights o ...

, 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 Highway 216, better known by its official name of Anthony Henday Drive, is a Controlled-access highway, freeway that ring road, encircles Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is a heavily travelled commuter and truck Bypass (road), bypass route with ...

, 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. 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 The Carlton Trail was the primary land transportation route in the Canadian Northwest for most of the 19th century, connecting Fort Carlton to Edmonton along a line of intermediate places. It was part of a trail network that stretched from the ...

network. Where Victoria Trail ends, at 153 Avenue, Fort Road is nearby. Another portion of the historic Fort Trail exists in

Sturgeon County Sturgeon County is a municipal district in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is north of Edmonton and west of the North Saskatchewan River. Sturgeon County is located in Division No. 11 and was named for the Sturgeon Rive ...

. ''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 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 separation, grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. ...

ramps; however there are no current plans to convert it to a

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 ...

. North of

, 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; 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.

History

The original Fort Road was a trail part of the

, a fur trade trail system that connected

Lower Fort Garry Lower Fort Garry was built in 1830 by the Hudson's Bay Company on the western bank of the Red River, north of the original Fort Garry (now in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). Treaty 1 was signed there. A devastating flood destroyed Fort Garry ...

(near

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

) to Fort Saskatchewan and

Fort Edmonton Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of Trading post, trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now ce ...

; named after

Fort Carlton Fort Carlton was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trading post from 1795 until 1885. It was located along the North Saskatchewan River not far from Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, Duck Lake, in what is now the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The fort wa ...

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. Fort Road originally linked to

Jasper Avenue Jasper Avenue is an arterial road in central Edmonton, Alberta, and is the city's main street. Jasper Avenue has no official street number but is aligned with 101 Avenue with the majority of its length. Jasper Avenue is a major public transi ...

, but the southern sections were removed as Edmonton expanded and developed its grid system, with 82 Street linking

downtown Edmonton Downtown Edmonton is the central business district of Edmonton, Alberta. Located at the geographical centre of the city, the downtown area is bounded by 109 Street to the west, 105 Avenue to the north, 97 Street to the east, 97 Avenue and Rossdale ...

with the remaining sections. Fort Road also were referred to as ''Fort Saskatchewan Road'', ''Fort Saskatchewan Trail,'' and ''Fort Trail''. When Alberta developed its provincial highway network, Fort Road was originally designated as part of

Alberta Highway 16 Alberta Provincial Highway No. 16, commonly referred to as Highway 16, is a major east–west highway in central Alberta, Canada, connecting Jasper, Alberta, Jasper to Lloydminster via Edmonton. It forms a portion of the Yellowhead Highway, ...

, with

Alberta Highway 15 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 tha ...

being designated to the route that connected Edmonton to

Elk Island National Park Elk Island National Park is a National Parks of Canada, national park in Alberta, Canada, that played an important part in the conservation of the plains bison. The park is administered by the Parks Canada Agency. This "island of conservation" ...

; 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

) was extended from 120 Avenue to Fort Road, as part of the project a

single-point urban interchange A single-point urban interchange (SPUI, or ), also called a single-point interchange (SPI) or single-point diamond interchange (SPDI), is a type of highway interchange. The design was created in order to help move large volumes of traffic th ...

was constructed at

and through traffic from Fort Road was diverted to Capilano Drive.

Major intersections

This is a list of major intersecting streets, starting at the south end of Fort Road.

References