Alberta Highway 2

Highway 2
Highway 2 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors
Length	1,273 km[a] (791 mi)
Major junctions
South end	US 89 at U.S. border in Carway
Major intersections	Highway 5 in Cardston Highway 3 in Fort Macleod Highway 201 in Calgary Highway 1 (TCH) in Calgary Highway 11 in Red Deer Highway 14 in Edmonton Highway 16 (TCH) in Edmonton Highway 55 in Athabasca Highway 49 near Donnelly Highway 35 near Grimshaw
North end	Highway 43 near Grande Prairie
Location
Country	Canada
Province	Alberta
Specialized and rural municipalities	Cardston Willow Creek Foothills County Rocky View Mountain View Red Deer Lacombe Ponoka Wetaskiwin Leduc Sturgeon Westlock Athabasca Lesser Slave River Big Lakes Smoky River Northern Sunrise Peace Fairview Birch Hills Spirit River Saddle Hills Grande Prairie
Major cities	Calgary, Airdrie, Red Deer, Lacombe, Leduc, Edmonton, St. Albert
Highway system
Alberta Provincial Highway Network List Former
← Highway 1X → Highway 2A

Highway 2 (also known as the Queen Elizabeth II Highway^[b]) is a major highway in Alberta that stretches from the Canada–United States border through Calgary and Edmonton to Grande Prairie. Running primarily north to south for approximately 1,273 kilometres (791 mi), it is the longest and busiest highway in the province carrying more than 180,000 vehicles per day near Downtown Calgary. The Fort Macleod—Edmonton section forms a portion of the CANAMEX Corridor that links Alaska to Mexico. More than half of Alberta's 4 million residents live in the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor created by Highway 2.

U.S. Route 89 enters Alberta from Montana and becomes Highway 2, a two-lane road that traverses the foothills of southern Alberta to Fort Macleod where it intersects Highway 3 and becomes divided. In Calgary, the route is a busy freeway named Deerfoot Trail that continues into central Alberta as the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, bypassing Red Deer. In Edmonton, it is briefly concurrent with freeway sections of Highways 216 and 16 before bisecting St. Albert and reverting to two lanes en route to Athabasca. It bends northwest along the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake as the Northern Woods and Water Route into High Prairie, before turning north to Peace River, west to Fairview and finally south to Grande Prairie where it ends at Highway 43.

Originally numbered as Highway 1, Highway 2 is the oldest major highway in Alberta and the first to stretch north into the Peace Country. It was historically known as the Calgary and Edmonton Trail, Sunshine Trail, and the Blue Trail. Major changes include the construction of a divided expressway between Calgary and Edmonton in the 1960s, realignment along Deerfoot Trail in the 1980s, and twinning south of Nanton in the 1990s. A Highway 43 realignment in 1998 shortened Highway 2 by nearly 90 km (56 mi) to its current northern terminus in Grande Prairie; it previously extended west to British Columbia Highway 2 at the border.^[3] Several projects including median widening and interchange upgrades have been undertaken in the 2010s to increase the safety of the highway's busier sections, with further improvements either under construction or awaiting funding. Bypasses of Fort Macleod, Claresholm, and Nanton are planned as part of Alberta's effort to make its portion of the CANAMEX Corridor free-flowing from border to border.

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