History and Past Construction
The eastern leg from Yellowhead Trail to Highway 14 was already an existing highway for several decades; it was formerly known as Highway 14X.
The Alberta provincial government developed the ring road plan during the 1970s and purchased the land for this purpose. This encircling land became known as the Transportation and Utility Corridor, ("utilities" being both overhead high-voltage transmission lines, and underground gas and oil pipelines), TUC for short on engineering drawings.
The western leg from Yellowhead Trail to Whitemud Drive was constructed by the City of Edmonton during the 1990s, prior to the province taking over responsibility of the project. The 87 Avenue and Whitemud Drive interchanges were built, and the southwestern leg from Whitemud Drive to Calgary Trail / Gateway Boulevard was completed by October 2006. This section was the highest priority for construction due to its CANAMEX designation, providing a link between Highway 2 south and Highway 16 west. It became entirely free-flowing on November 2, 2011. The total distance of the southwestern leg from Yellowhead Trail to Gateway Boulevard is 24 km (15 mi).
Construction of the 11 km (6.8 mi) southeastern section from Calgary Trail / Gateway Boulevard to Highway 14 began in April 2005 and was completed in October 2007. The southeastern section was built through a public-private partnership (P3 — also known as a design-build-operate project), in which Access Roads won the contract for $493 million to build the road and maintain it for 30 years.
On the northern section of Anthony Henday Drive, construction of the interim segment from Highway 16 in the west to 137 Avenue was partially completed as part of St. Albert's West Regional Road (Ray Gibbon Drive) project. Construction of the entire 21 km (13 mi) northwest leg from Yellowhead Trail to Manning Drive (Highway 15) was started in September 2008, through the provincial government's signing of a $1.42 billion P3 agreement with Northwestconnect General Partnership to build and maintain the road for 30 years. This leg opened to traffic on November 1, 2011.
Read more about this topic: Anthony Henday Drive
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