^^ agree that all those upgrades can and should be done first, but planning for a longer term bypass isn't a bad idea either. it will provide an eastern boundary for what will someday be a contiguous city from red deer to lacombe, and with that area at 250k+ it will be good to have a bypass route not just for load balance but for accident/construction avoidance as well
of course SW henday is seriously under built now and needs upgrades ASAP, just go right to 8 lanes from hwy 2 south to hwy 16 in the west, and having an extra lane southbound across the river and up the hill for trucks and RVs wouldn't be a bad idea either
wonder if that could be done as part of the province's planned hwy 2 alternate route west of leduc and the airport to meet up with terwillegar dr? and would the city pony up for the interchanges between henday and whitemud at the same time.. getting edmonton the start of an actual freeway network?
for the rest of henday, upgrade SE and north sections to 6 lanes for cheap and that should do it for a while
now that twinning of hwy 63 to ft mac is pretty much done, would be nice to see the province refocus on getting hwy 2 and the other transcanada routes up to freeway spec, do some powerbuilding during the slump with labor and resources on the cheap!