Sherwood Park Freeway

Route description

Sherwood Park Freeway is a suburban freeway with a grass median for its entire length, bisecting industrial and commercial areas in southeast Edmonton and at the western edge of Strathcona County.

Shortly after 17 Street, the freeway meets Anthony Henday Drive at a combination interchange. A high capacity, two-lane, semi-directional flyover carries traffic eastbound on Sherwood Park Freeway to northbound Anthony Henday Drive. The other three left turn movements are provided by loop ramps. 800 m east of Anthony Henday Drive, the Highway 100 and Sherwood Park Freeway designations officially end, and the freeway continues as a major arterial named Wye Road into Sherwood Park. Wye Road continues through Sherwood Park becoming Highway 630 at Highway 21, travelling through the rural areas of Strathcona County, eventually connecting with Highway 14 west of Tofield.

The eastern half of the route from 34 Street to Anthony Henday Drive is designated as Highway 100 by Alberta Transportation, but is not signed as such at any point along the route.

Strathcona County Transit operates routes 401, 403, and 404 along the freeway to Edmonton from Ordze Transit Centre on Wye Road.

History

In the early 1900s, Wye Road followed the alignment of present-day 76 Avenue out of Edmonton to the east, en route to North Cooking Lake. By the 1920s it had become a secondary unsurfaced thoroughfare, and was later named Highway 14. As Edmonton and the newly developed Sherwood Park grew in the late 1960s, a free-flowing road, Sherwood Park Freeway, was built to link the two on a new alignment of Highway 14 several hundred meters north of Wye Road.{{Cite web | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507075956/http://globalnews.ca/news/2670442/bridge-construction-sure-to-cause-traffic-headache-in-east-edmonton/ |archive-date=2016-05-07 |access-date=2016-11-09 |df=mdy-all | date=2016-04-29 |last=Kornik |first=Slav | title=Bridge construction sure to cause traffic headache in east Edmonton | work=Global News | url-status=live |quote=the [50 Street] bridge which was built in 1968.}} The cloverleaf interchange at the freeway's east end was completed in 1965, and the remaining interchanges were completed in 1968. It was four lanes wide and included an additional interchange immediately east of 17 Street that has since been removed. After completion of Sherwood Park Freeway, the existing Highway 14 (76 Avenue) was renamed to Highway 14A. Further south, Whitemud Drive was constructed and eventually extended east to reach Highway 14. It then assumed the designation of Highway 14 to a new terminus at Calgary Trail. The Highway 14A designation has since been removed from 76 Avenue, and the portion of Sherwood Park Freeway within Strathcona County was eventually renumbered Highway 100.

Extensive upgrades to the eastern end of the freeway were finished in 2016 as part of a project completing the final northeast segment of the Anthony Henday Drive ring road. The 17 Street bridge was demolished and reconstructed to be twice as wide with two lanes each way. An interchange linking the freeway to 76 Avenue (formerly Highway 14A) was removed. From 17 Street to the western terminus, both directions remain two lanes wide.

Major intersections

Sherwood Park Freeway stretches 7.1 km from 71 Street in Edmonton to approximately 800 m east of Anthony Henday Drive in Sherwood Park.

References

References

1. "Sherwood Park history - The first churches". Strathcona County.
2. "Sherwood Park history - Unpaved roads create memories". Strathcona County.
3. "Sherwood Park Freeway".
4. Google. (June 2015). "Sherwood Park Freeway eastbound near 34 Street". Google Street View.
5. "Sherwood Park Freeway in Strathcona County and Edmonton".
6. "NE Anthony Henday: Sherwood Park Freeway interchange". Alberta Transportation.
7. "Sherwood Park Freeway and Anthony Henday Drive".
8. Stantec. (2007). "Provincial Highway Service Classification - Transportation". Alberta Transportation.
9. "Highway 630 in Strathcona County".
10. (1913). "Mundys map of Edmonton and suburbs". Mundy Map and Blueprint Company.
11. Department of the Interior. (June 1926). "Edmonton District". Topographical Survey of Canada.
12. "Edmonton, Alberta". The H.M.G..
13. "1969 Alberta Official Highway Road Map".
14. (2012-09-28). "Transportation Infrastructure Management System - Existing Structures in the Provincial Highway Corridor". Alberta Transportation.
15. (1976-05-25). "Alberta highways: gleaming network basking in the pulse of oil". Edmonton Journal.
16. (2009-01-13). "Northeast Anthony Henday Drive". Government of Alberta.
17. Wolansky, Lisa. (2015-05-01). "Bridge over Sherwood Park Freeway to be demolished". Global News.
18. (2014-02-21). "Closure for Sherwood Park Fwy interchange work". Alberta Transportation.
19. (March 2016). "2016 Provincial Highway 1-216 Progress Chart". Alberta Transportation.