Alberta Highway 28

Highway 28 is a 286-kilometre (178 mi) highway in north-central Alberta, Canada that connects Edmonton to Cold Lake.^[2] The highway is a component of Canada's National Highway System. Between Highway 28A near Gibbons and the intersection with Highway 63 near Radway, it forms part of the Northeast Alberta Trade Corridor and is designated as a core route.^[3] For the remainder of the route from Radway to the eastern end at Cold Lake, it is designated as a feeder route.^[4]

Highway 28 begins at the intersection of 97 Street and Anthony Henday Drive (Highway 216), Edmonton's ring road, at the north end of the city.^[5] It enters Sturgeon County, passing CFB Edmonton and Bon Accord. After merging with Highway 28A near Gibbons it travels in a northeasterly direction through Redwater and intersects Highway 63 just west of Radway. It continues east and winds through agricultural lands of north-central Alberta, roughly paralleling the North Saskatchewan River, passing through Waskatenau and Smoky Lake. It intersects Highway 36 near Vilna, and shares a 36-kilometre (22 mi) concurrency to Ashmont. At Hoselaw, it intersects Highway 41 and shares a 18-kilometre (11 mi) concurrency to Bonnyville.^[6] Highway 28 continues east to Beaver Crossing, where it intersects Highway 55, about 14 kilometres (9 mi) west of the Saskatchewan border; the two routes turn north and share a 10-kilometre (6 mi) wrong-way concurrency and enter the City of Cold Lake where they connect Cold Lake South (the former town of Grand Centre) with Cold Lake North. After Highway 55 leaves the route, it runs northeast and ends at Lakeshore Drive along the shores of Cold Lake.^[1]

Highway 28 began as a short highway travelling north out of Downtown Edmonton to Namao, ending in the Gibbons and Coronado area. Highway 28 started at Jasper Avenue (Highway 15 east and Highway 16 west) and followed 100 Street and 101 Street to Norwood Boulevard, cosigned with Highway 16. The routes split and Highway 16 continued east to 86 Street and Fort Road and Highway 28 continued north on 97 Street.^[7] In c. 1940, the Highway 15 & 16 designations were switched east of Edmonton, resulting in Highway 28 sharing a concurrency Highway 15 in Downtown Edmonton.^[8] Highway 28 was extended northeastward, connected to St. Paul in mid-1940s^[9] and Cold Lake in the early 1950s.^[10] In 1961, a more direct route between Ashmont and Hoselaw was constructed and designated as Highway 28A; construction of the highway required splitting Mann Lake in two, creating Upper and Lower Mann Lake.^[11] Work continued on paving the route throughout the 1960s, and by the end of the decade the route was fully paved between Edmonton and Cold Lake.^[12]

When Highway 16 was moved to Yellowhead Trail in the 1980s, the Highway 28 designation was removed from city streets south the roadway and its new southern terminus was at the 97 Street / Yellowhead Trail intersection.^[13] In 2006, as part of an effort to simplify highway route numbering in the St. Paul area, Highway 28 was rerouted to Highway 28A to formalize the more contiguous route between Edmonton and Cold Lake, while Highway 28 through St. Paul was re-signed to be part of Highway 29.^[14] In 2016, Anthony Henday Drive was completed^[15] and in subsequent years the official Highway 28 designation was removed from 97 Street inside the ring road.^[5]

Highway 28X was a 14-kilometre (9 mi) spur route of Highway 28. It began at Highway 28, approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) south of Cold Lake, and travelled to the Saskatchewan boundary where it continued east as Saskatchewan Highway 55.^[16] In c. 1977, Highway 28X was part of a number of highways which were renumbered when Alberta Highway 55 was established between Athabasca and the Saskatchewan border.^[16][17]

Alberta Transportation ultimately intends to upgrade the entire Edmonton-Fort McMurray corridor to a divided highway, which would include twinning of Highway 28 from Highway 28A to Highway 63.^[18]