17 Avenue SE is a major

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 ...

in east

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. 17 Avenue SE is the focal point of the International Avenue Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) and the main roadway through the former town of Forest Lawn. Chestermere Boulevard is a major arterial road and the eastern extension of 17 Avenue SE through

Chestermere Chestermere, originally named Chestermere Lake is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta, within Rocky View County. It is largely a commuter town of Calgary and is a member municipality of the Calgary Region. The city, which surrounds Ches ...

, Alberta, Canada. The roadway is a former alignment of Highway 1A.

Route description

The west end of 17 Avenue SE begins with a small segment at a 5-way intersection with 9 Avenue SE and 15 Street SE (due to

traffic calming Traffic calming uses physical design and other measures to improve safety for motorists, car drivers, pedestrians and bicycle-friendly, cyclists. It has become a tool to combat speeding and other unsafe behaviours of drivers. It aims to encour ...

, access to northbound 15 Street SE is closed), crossing the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

, and ending at 17A Street SE. It begins again just to the south at the Blackfoot Trail / 19 Street SE intersection and crosses the

Bow River The headwaters of the Bow River in Alberta, Canada, start at the Bow Glacier and Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Rocky Mountains. The glacial stream that feeds Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake ...

via the ''Cushing Bridge'' before intersecting

Deerfoot Trail Deerfoot Trail is a freeway segment of Alberta Highway 2, Highway 2 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It stretches the entire length of the city from south to north and links suburbs to Downtown Calgary, downtown via Memorial Drive (Cal ...

( Highway 2). Prior to the construction of Blackfoot Trail, 17 Avenue SE was a continuous roadway and the section between 19 Street SE and Deerfoot Trail is now generally referred to as part of Blackfoot Trail. 19 Street SE serves as the main access between 9 Avenue SE and Blackfoot Trail / 17 Avenue SE. East of Deerfoot Trail, 17 Avenue SE leaves the Bow River valley and intersects Barlow Trail, though it is only accessible for westbound traffic. It passes through the communities of Albert Park/Radisson Heights, Southview, and Forest Lawn, and continues east past Elliston Park before intersecting

Stoney Trail Highway 201, better known by its official names of Stoney Trail and Tsuut'ina Trail, is a freeway that encircles Calgary, Alberta. It serves as a bypass for the congested routes of 16 Avenue N and Deerfoot Trail through Calgary ( Highways 1 ...

. It transitions into rural farmland and at 116 Street SE (also known as Range Road 284 or Conrich Road), enters into the city of Chestermere, where it becomes Chestermere Boulevard. It ends at the Highway 1 (

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

) interchange, where it continues east as Range Road 243.

History

17 Avenue SE is the original alignment of Highway 1 through eastern Calgary. In 1949, Highway 1 was rerouted to follow 16 Avenue N, bypassing

downtown Calgary Downtown Calgary is a dense urban district in central Calgary, Alberta. It contains the second largest concentration of head offices in Canada, despite only being the country's fourth largest city in terms of population. The downtown is divided in ...

and Forest Lawn, and 17 Avenue SE designated as Highway 1A. The section of Highway 1A west of Deerfoot Trail was dropped in the 1970s, resulting in Highway 1A being a short alternate route into Calgary and its southeast industrial parks. In 1993, the International Avenue BRZ was established resulting in 17 Avenue SE being nicknamed as ''International Avenue.'' In 2007, the City of Calgary annexed land from

Rocky View County Rocky View County is a municipal district in southern Alberta, Canada that is named for its views of the nearby Rocky Mountains to the west. It surrounds most of Calgary, forming the city's northern boundary and most of the city's western and e ...

up to Range Road 284 (now 116 Street SE); while in 2009, Chestermere annexed land up to the Calgary city limit, resulting in Highway 1A no longer travelling through a

rural municipality A rural municipality is a classification of municipality, a type of local government, found in several countries. These include: * Rural municipality (Canada), Rural municipalities in Canada, a Lists of municipalities in Canada, type of municipa ...

and signaling a possible end to the Highway 1A designation. In 2013, the province of Alberta decommissioned Highway 1A, and as of 2016, remnant Highway 1A signage still remains on Deerfoot Trail and sections of 17 Avenue SE within Calgary; however, it has been removed along Stoney Trail, through Chestermere, and along the Trans-Canada Highway.

17 Avenue Transitway

The City of Calgary opened a long dedicated bus-only transitway on November 19, 2018 as part of the city's MAX BRT network. The transitway, which carries MAX Purple, begins to the south of 17 Avenue SE at the intersection 9 Avenue SE and 16 Street SE, and travels parallel to Blackfoot Trail and 17 Avenue SE, crossing the Bow River and Deerfoot Trail on its own dedicated bridges. At 28 Street SE, the transitway shifts to the centre of 17 Avenue SE and travels east before ending just west of Hubalta Road. Long-term plans call for the mixed-use corridor and transitway to extend east into Chestermere. Construction began in 2017 and was divided into two phases – both of which were constructed simultaneously. Phase 1 focused on the dedicated bus-only transitway on 17 Avenue SE between 28 Street SE and Hubalta Road SE, which included the construction of BRT station platforms and a complete transformation of International Avenue infrastructure. Phase 2 focused on the construction of a transit and pedestrian only bridge crossing

, connecting 28 Street SE to 9 Avenue SE.

Major intersections

From west to east.

References

External links