Alberta Highway 22X - Contemporary Issues

Contemporary Issues

The Marquis of Lorne Trail portion of Highway 22X has, in recent history, earned a reputation of being extremely dangerous. Southward growth of Calgary had turned the small rural highway (it remains a 2-lane rural arterial road in many places) into an urban street that was not suited for high traffic volumes. Major upgrades have made the stretch of highway safer, the most important of which extended Deerfoot Trail southward to create a continuous Highway 2, reducing the need for trucks and southbound vehicles to cut over to Macleod Trail via 22X. In the late 1990s the son of a motorist killed along 22X spearheaded efforts to have streetlights installed along the most dangerous stretch of road. Despite the completion of the Deerfoot Trail extension, 22X remains a major access road for a half-dozen communities: Bridlewood, Somerset, Silverado, Sundance, Chaparral, McKenzie Lake, Cranston, Auburn Bay, and Mahogany.

As of late 2007, the latest upgrade project of twinning 22X, the deck for the second bridge that crosses Fish Creek Provincial Park and the Bow River, has been completed; the road is now twinned from just east of Macleod Trail to just before 52nd Street SE, east of the Deerfoot Trail. Highway 22X is also twinned west of Macleod Trail to a point beyond Calgary's city limits, though the road remains two lanes as it crosses over Macleod Trail.

Until the late 1990s, all of Highway 22X within the City of Calgary went by the name "Marquis of Lorne Trail", until the owners of Spruce Meadows successfully lobbied the city to rename the western portion after the internationally known show-jumping facility. It is now known as "Spruce Meadows Trail" or simply, "22X". In 2009, the province announced plans to complete the southeastern portion of the Calgary ring road by extending the still-under-construction East Freeway (or Stoney Trail) south from Highway 1A. Provincial announcements and media have indicated that the ring road project also includes the portion of Highway 22X from the East Freeway to Macleod Trail. Whether this means the road will be upgraded, or possibly receive a new designation, remains to be seen.