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Anthony Henday Drive

Anthony Henday Drive marker
Anthony Henday Drive
Highway 216
Map
Anthony Henday Drive highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by Volker Stevin, Carmacks, Lafarge[a]
Length77.954 km[5] (48.438 mi)
Existed1990–present
Component
highways		 Highway 216[b]
Major junctions
Ring road around Edmonton
Major intersections
Location
CountryCanada
ProvinceAlberta
Specialized and rural municipalitiesStrathcona County
Major citiesEdmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park
Highway system
← Highway 201→ Highway 500
Looking west on Henday toward Gateway Blvd from 91 Street. At the left, eastbound traffic from Highway 2 mixes with traffic destined to 91 Street before joining the freeway.

Highway 216, better known by its official name of Anthony Henday Drive, is a 78-kilometre (48 mi) freeway that encircles Edmonton, Alberta. It is a heavily travelled commuter and truck bypass route with the southwest quadrant serving as a portion of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Canada to the United States and Mexico. Henday is one of the busiest highways in Western Canada, carrying over 105,000 vehicles per day in 2022 at its busiest point near West Edmonton Mall. Rush hour congestion is common on the four-lane section in southwest Edmonton, where traffic levels have risen due to rapid suburban development. Work began in fall 2019 to widen this section to six lanes by the end of 2023.

Calgary Trail in south Edmonton is designated as the starting point of the ring, with exit numbers increasing clockwise as the freeway proceeds across the North Saskatchewan River to the Cameron Heights neighbourhood, then north past Whitemud Drive, Stony Plain Road and Yellowhead Trail to St. Albert. It continues east past 97 Street to Manning Drive, then south across the North Saskatchewan River a second time. Entering Strathcona County, it again crosses Yellowhead Trail and Whitemud Drive, passing the community of Sherwood Park. Continuing south to Highway 14, the road re-enters southeast Edmonton and turns west to complete the ring.

Late in its planning the freeway was named after English explorer Anthony Henday, who historians believe was one of the first Europeans to visit Edmonton. Its designation of 216 is derived from its bypass linkages to Edmonton's two major crossroads, Highways 2 and 16. Constructed over 26 years at a cost of $4.3 billion, Henday became the first freeway to surround a major Canadian city when the final segment opened on October 1, 2016. Planning of the ring began in the 1950s, followed by design work and initial land acquisition in the 1970s, and opening of the first expressway segment in 1990. Plans for Henday were developed in tandem with Stoney Trail, a similar ring road freeway around Calgary.

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