Ray Gibbon Drive, referred to as the West Regional Road during proposal and planning stages, is a major arterial road in St. Albert,

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 ...

. With the exception of the

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

portion of 184 Street, it is only partially constructed as a two-lane road. Currently, it is long and runs between

Anthony Henday Drive Highway 216, better known by its official name of Anthony Henday Drive, is a Controlled-access highway, freeway that ring road, encircles Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is a heavily travelled commuter and truck Bypass (road), bypass route with ...

and Villeneuve Road. It was named at the official opening of Stage One in October 2007, after former mayor of St. Albert Ray Gibbon, who served from 1968 to 1974 and again in 1989. Gibbon died in 1999, but his wife and family were present for the official opening, riding in the vintage lead vehicle for the first use of the road. Ray Gibbon Drive preceded in Edmonton as 184 Street, an

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 ...

which begins at 100 Avenue and travels north to Anthony Henday Drive.

Expansion

Plans to extend and upgrade Ray Gibbon Drive have been steadily revised in

Edmonton Capital Region Edmonton is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region, and is in Treaty 6 terr ...

Transportation Planning documents.

Twinning

In 2020, construction commenced on widening the St. Albert portion of the road to a 4-lane expressway standard, as per requests in 2015 by St. Albert City Council, and approved by the Province of Alberta in 2019, with the $54.2 million price tag to be split equally by the City of St. Albert and the province. Construction was planned to be completed in four phases. , construction of phases one and two have been completed, with the final two phases between McKenny Avenue and Villenueve Road anticipated to be completed in 2026 and 2029, respectively. Original plans for a freeway conversion were abandoned, citing an unreasonable cost.

Extension

In 2005, the Province of Alberta began a study on the feasibility of extending Ray Gibbon Drive north of Villeneuve Road, with the goal of connecting to Highway 2 south of

Morinville Morinville is a town in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is approximately north of Edmonton along Alberta Highway 2, Highway 2. History Morinville was settled by Jean-Baptiste Morin, a priest and missionary of the Mi ...

, deemed necessary by high traffic volume and congestion on St. Albert Trail, transferring the Highway 2 designation to Ray Gibbon Drive In 2015, the City of St. Albert approved the creation of a new arterial road connecting Ray Gibbon Drive to St. Albert Trail (Highway 2), designated as Fowler Way. A study was published in 2018, laying out three potential right-of-ways for the road, aiming to reduce traffic on both St. Albert Trail and Villenueve Road.

Land

In 2016, the City of St. Albert proposed an annexation of of fragmented land from the City of Edmonton, which was adjusted to a proposed in March 2021. Throughout, the City of St. Albert has maintained that it would be more cost efficient for it to service and maintain this area, as the fragments are adjacent to serviced St. Albert land, while the natural barrier of the

would make it less efficient for Edmonton to extend utility and other services. The fragments are located in a small northwest section of the Anthony Henday transportation utility corridor (adjacent to the north side of Anthony Henday Drive), adjacent to the south side of St. Albert, east of the southern-most stretch of Ray Gibbon Drive owned and serviced by the City of Edmonton (see #Major intersections), and to the west and south of 137 Avenue NW.

Major intersections

References