Circle Drive - History

History

Construction of a ring road in Saskatoon was first proposed in 1913 by city commissioner Christopher J. Yorath. He conceived the first comprehensive town plan, which included inner and outer "encircling boulevards". Parts of the present-day roadway follow the course Yorath laid out. It wasn't until the 1950s as the city expanded outward that the present roadway corridor was established. Construction funding, originally estimated at $10 million, was allotted and construction began in 1961. Circle Drive was built in sections, as required by traffic conditions and allowed by available funding. The first sections – the northwest segment between Warman Road and 11th Street West and the southeast segment between Lorne Avenue and College Drive – were constructed beginning in the 1960s, concurrent with the Idylwyld Freeway project (a portion of the northwest alignment running west of Warman Road had previously existed as the commercial arterial road 42nd Street). The last major section of the roadway that was completed was in the northeast quadrant, from College Drive to Millar Avenue. This included the construction of the Circle Drive Bridge across the South Saskatchewan River, completed in 1983.

Due to their being connected directly to Circle Drive, locally it's common for the Idylwyld Freeway (which runs from Circle Drive proper to 20th Street), as well as the portion of Saskatchewan Highway 16 running east from the cloverleaf junction, to be referred to erroneously as Circle Drive. Conversely, the portion of Circle Drive between Warman Road and Avenue C, due to it incorporating the former 42nd Street commercial strip, is often still called 42nd Street by longtime residents.