King's Highway 401 is the primary through route across Southern, Central and Eastern Ontario. Since the highway's completion in the late 1960s, Highway 401 has evolved from being a convenient bypass to a vital economic corridor. Today, the highway is used by millions of motorists to travel across the province quickly. It is also used by thousands of transport trucks every day, carrying goods to and from Ontario manufacturers and consumers. The economic activity generated by Highway 401 is immeasurable. This highway has contributed greatly to Ontario's prosperity in recent decades. One section of Highway 401 in Toronto between Weston Road and Highway 400 now carries over 420,000 vehicles on an average day, giving Highway 401 conditions the distinction of being North America's busiest highway.
The need for a new east-west highway across Ontario was recognized in the 1930s, when congestion started to become a problem in towns and cities along Highway 2. Before the days of Highway 401, all through traffic had to use Highway 2, which was a standard two-lane highway that passed right through every town along its route from Windsor to the Quebec Boundary. Planning for a new four-lane highway began before World War II, but the first section of the new highway was not completed until 1947. This new highway ran from West Hill in Scarborough Township to Oshawa and was known initially as Highway 2A. In 1952, the route number was changed to Highway 401. The most important link in Highway 401 was the Toronto Bypass. This critical section of the new highway ran just to the north of the urbanized area of Toronto. The Toronto Bypass was completed in the mid-1950s after several years of construction. It ran from Highway 27 to West Hill, located in Scarborough Township. The rest of Highway 401 was completed across Ontario in multiple phases, with the highest priority given to those sections where traffic congestion on neighbouring highways was a problem. The high priority sections included the Windsor to Tilbury section, the London to Woodstock section, the Milton to Toronto section, the Oshawa to Port Hope section, the Trenton to Belleville section and the Kingston to Gananoque section. The remaining phases of Highway 401 were completed during the 1960s. Eventually, a new four-lane highway had been completed from the Oshawa area easterly to the Quebec Boundary, and from Toronto south-westerly to Windsor. The final section of Highway 401 was completed between Gananoque and Brockville in 1968, completing an 818 km controlled-access freeway across the southern half of Ontario. The highway was officially rededicated as the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway in 1965, to commemorate two of Canada's Fathers of Confederation, Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir George Etienne Cartier. Special commemorative highway signs, like the example seen above, used to greet motorists at every entrance to the highway. After a decade of government cost-cutting, the blue signs were deemed to be expendible and were quickly phased out in the 1990s. Less than ten signs still exist along the highway today.
Initially, the entire highway was four lanes, with two lanes for each direction of travel. By the late 1950s, congestion was becoming a serious problem on Highway 401 across Toronto. The Toronto Bypass was widened to a minimum of twelve lanes (six lanes per direction) from Islington Avenue to Neilson Road during the 1960s and early 1970s. This project included the introduction of a collector-express lane setup, in order to separate local traffic from through traffic. With the new collector-express lane configurations, motorists could only enter or exit the highway from the collector lanes. There was no direct interchange access from the express lanes to intersecting roads, except at a handful of freeway interchanges. Motorists wishing to switch between the express and collector lanes could utilize one of the transfer roads. These transfer roads joined the collector and express lanes together at strategic intervals along Highway 401. In the 1980s, another multi-lane collector-express section of Highway 401 was completed between Highway 427 and Highway 403 in Mississauga, boasting eighteen though lanes (nine lanes for each direction). The most recent collector-express lane construction project on Highway 401 was between Neilson Road and Brock Road. This massive reconstruction project was completed in the mid-1990s and provided a minimum of twelve lanes (six lanes in each direction) along Highway 401 between Scarborough and Pickering. An extension of the collector-express lanes in Mississauga from Highway 403 westerly to Highway 407 is proposed, but no construction schedule has yet been announced. However, two preparatory construction projects involving the replacement of the Hurontario Street and McLaughlin Road Overpasses in Mississauga are both scheduled to begin in 2008.
Many other sections of Highway 401 have been widened to six lanes since the 1970s. The entire route of Highway 401 from Mississauga to Kitchener was widened to six lanes during the 1980s and early 1990s. The highway was also widened to six lanes from London to Woodstock during the early 1990s and from Kitchener to Highway 97 (Cedar Creek Road) between 2000 and 2003. Highway 401 was widened to six lanes through Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Bowmanville in the 1970s and early 1980s. Since 2004, most sections of Highway 401 from Windsor to Tilbury have been widened to six lanes. The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) plans to have the last remaining four-lane section of Highway 401 in the Windsor area widened to six lanes by 2010. The MTO is also planning to widen the final four-lane section of Highway 401 from Woodstock to Highway 97 (Cedar Creek Road). The first phase of this widening project is currently underway, with the estimated completion date of all phases by early 2010. Since the late 1990s, Highway 401 has been widened to six lanes from the Highway 35 & 115 Interchange near Bowmanville to the Burnham Street Interchange in Cobourg. Widening of the Kingston Bypass to six lanes began in 2005 and is tentatively scheduled for completion in 2011. Improvements have also been made to the section of Highway 401 from Brock Road in Pickering to Salem Road in Ajax, where a total of ten through lanes (5 per direction) have been provided.
In January 2005, the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study team embarked on a multi-year study to investigate potential border crossing improvement options between Windsor and Detroit. The study sought to address the capacity problems associated with the two existing crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. Currently, all traffic from Highway 401 is deposited onto municipally-maintained surface streets (specifically Huron Church Road and Dougall Avenue) about 11 km south of the two existing crossings. Serious traffic congestion can occur on the streets approaching the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge, as through traffic mixes with local city traffic. Studies have been done to investigate different construction options, including the improvements of the two existing crossings. On May 1, 2008, the DRIC study team announced that a preferred alternative had been selected. Plans for the new Windsor-Essex Parkway were unveiled. This new 12 km freeway will essentially be a westerly extension of Highway 401. The Windsor-Essex Parkway will begin where Highway 401 currently ends at the Highway 3 Interchange in Windsor and proceed to a new international bridge site between LaSalle and the current Ambassador Bridge. The Windsor-Essex Parkway will be constructed as a six-lane fully controlled access freeway, with interchanges at all major crossing roads. Most of the Windsor-Essex Parkway will be built below-grade. A series of 11 tunnels, totalling 1.8 km in length, will be built so that international traffic will no longer interfere with local traffic and pedestrian movements. The Windsor-Essex Parkway will generally follow the route of Talbot Road and Huron Church Road from the current terminus of Highway 401 to the E.C. Row Expressway, where the new Parkway will diverge from Huron Chruch Road and head due west towards the proposed international bridge site near LaSalle. It should be noted that the Windsor-Essex Parkway may not necessarily be designated as Highway 401, although it is highly probable given that the Windsor-Essex Parkway will extend seamlessly from the current western terminus of Highway 401 south of Windsor. Pending environmental assessment approval, construction could proceed on this $1.6 billion project as early as 2009. The project is expected to create over 12,000 construction jobs in addition to greatly easing traffic congestion and reducing border crossing delays. The diversion of truck traffic onto the new Windsor-Essex Parkway will result in a more pleasant environment along local Windsor streets, which have long been overburdened with international traffic.
On August 24, 2007, Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield announced that Highway 401 from Trenton to Toronto would be dedicated as the "Highway of Heroes". The intent of this new designation is to commemorate Canada's fallen soldiers who died while serving in Afghanistan. This section of Highway 401 has witnessed several repatriation ceremonies recently and it is hoped that the new highway designation will encourage Canadians to reflect upon the sacrifices that our Armed Forces have made while serving in Afghanistan. New highway signs bearing a large red poppy and the commemorative Highway of Heroes designation were installed along Highway 401 between Toronto and Trenton in September 2007.
There are 19 Service Centres located along Highway 401. These centres are open 24 hours a day and offer motorists convenient access to fuel, restaurants and picnic areas. The centres are located about every 80 km (50 miles) except through the GTA, where services are generally available at almost every interchange. The posted speed limit on Highway 401 is 100 km/h (60 mph). Exits along Highway 401 are numbered based on their distance from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. Approximate distances along the highway can therefore be calculated by subtracting one exit number from another. For example, the distance from Highway 404 (Exit 375) to Highway 37 (Exit 544) is 169 km (544 - 375 = 169).
The need for a new east-west highway across Ontario was recognized in the 1930s, when congestion started to become a problem in towns and cities along Highway 2. Before the days of Highway 401, all through traffic had to use Highway 2, which was a standard two-lane highway that passed right through every town along its route from Windsor to the Quebec Boundary. Planning for a new four-lane highway began before World War II, but the first section of the new highway was not completed until 1947. This new highway ran from West Hill in Scarborough Township to Oshawa and was known initially as Highway 2A. In 1952, the route number was changed to Highway 401. The most important link in Highway 401 was the Toronto Bypass. This critical section of the new highway ran just to the north of the urbanized area of Toronto. The Toronto Bypass was completed in the mid-1950s after several years of construction. It ran from Highway 27 to West Hill, located in Scarborough Township. The rest of Highway 401 was completed across Ontario in multiple phases, with the highest priority given to those sections where traffic congestion on neighbouring highways was a problem. The high priority sections included the Windsor to Tilbury section, the London to Woodstock section, the Milton to Toronto section, the Oshawa to Port Hope section, the Trenton to Belleville section and the Kingston to Gananoque section. The remaining phases of Highway 401 were completed during the 1960s. Eventually, a new four-lane highway had been completed from the Oshawa area easterly to the Quebec Boundary, and from Toronto south-westerly to Windsor. The final section of Highway 401 was completed between Gananoque and Brockville in 1968, completing an 818 km controlled-access freeway across the southern half of Ontario. The highway was officially rededicated as the MacDonald-Cartier Freeway in 1965, to commemorate two of Canada's Fathers of Confederation, Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir George Etienne Cartier. Special commemorative highway signs, like the example seen above, used to greet motorists at every entrance to the highway. After a decade of government cost-cutting, the blue signs were deemed to be expendible and were quickly phased out in the 1990s. Less than ten signs still exist along the highway today.
Initially, the entire highway was four lanes, with two lanes for each direction of travel. By the late 1950s, congestion was becoming a serious problem on Highway 401 across Toronto. The Toronto Bypass was widened to a minimum of twelve lanes (six lanes per direction) from Islington Avenue to Neilson Road during the 1960s and early 1970s. This project included the introduction of a collector-express lane setup, in order to separate local traffic from through traffic. With the new collector-express lane configurations, motorists could only enter or exit the highway from the collector lanes. There was no direct interchange access from the express lanes to intersecting roads, except at a handful of freeway interchanges. Motorists wishing to switch between the express and collector lanes could utilize one of the transfer roads. These transfer roads joined the collector and express lanes together at strategic intervals along Highway 401. In the 1980s, another multi-lane collector-express section of Highway 401 was completed between Highway 427 and Highway 403 in Mississauga, boasting eighteen though lanes (nine lanes for each direction). The most recent collector-express lane construction project on Highway 401 was between Neilson Road and Brock Road. This massive reconstruction project was completed in the mid-1990s and provided a minimum of twelve lanes (six lanes in each direction) along Highway 401 between Scarborough and Pickering. An extension of the collector-express lanes in Mississauga from Highway 403 westerly to Highway 407 is proposed, but no construction schedule has yet been announced. However, two preparatory construction projects involving the replacement of the Hurontario Street and McLaughlin Road Overpasses in Mississauga are both scheduled to begin in 2008.
Many other sections of Highway 401 have been widened to six lanes since the 1970s. The entire route of Highway 401 from Mississauga to Kitchener was widened to six lanes during the 1980s and early 1990s. The highway was also widened to six lanes from London to Woodstock during the early 1990s and from Kitchener to Highway 97 (Cedar Creek Road) between 2000 and 2003. Highway 401 was widened to six lanes through Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Bowmanville in the 1970s and early 1980s. Since 2004, most sections of Highway 401 from Windsor to Tilbury have been widened to six lanes. The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) plans to have the last remaining four-lane section of Highway 401 in the Windsor area widened to six lanes by 2010. The MTO is also planning to widen the final four-lane section of Highway 401 from Woodstock to Highway 97 (Cedar Creek Road). The first phase of this widening project is currently underway, with the estimated completion date of all phases by early 2010. Since the late 1990s, Highway 401 has been widened to six lanes from the Highway 35 & 115 Interchange near Bowmanville to the Burnham Street Interchange in Cobourg. Widening of the Kingston Bypass to six lanes began in 2005 and is tentatively scheduled for completion in 2011. Improvements have also been made to the section of Highway 401 from Brock Road in Pickering to Salem Road in Ajax, where a total of ten through lanes (5 per direction) have been provided.
In January 2005, the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) study team embarked on a multi-year study to investigate potential border crossing improvement options between Windsor and Detroit. The study sought to address the capacity problems associated with the two existing crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. Currently, all traffic from Highway 401 is deposited onto municipally-maintained surface streets (specifically Huron Church Road and Dougall Avenue) about 11 km south of the two existing crossings. Serious traffic congestion can occur on the streets approaching the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge, as through traffic mixes with local city traffic. Studies have been done to investigate different construction options, including the improvements of the two existing crossings. On May 1, 2008, the DRIC study team announced that a preferred alternative had been selected. Plans for the new Windsor-Essex Parkway were unveiled. This new 12 km freeway will essentially be a westerly extension of Highway 401. The Windsor-Essex Parkway will begin where Highway 401 currently ends at the Highway 3 Interchange in Windsor and proceed to a new international bridge site between LaSalle and the current Ambassador Bridge. The Windsor-Essex Parkway will be constructed as a six-lane fully controlled access freeway, with interchanges at all major crossing roads. Most of the Windsor-Essex Parkway will be built below-grade. A series of 11 tunnels, totalling 1.8 km in length, will be built so that international traffic will no longer interfere with local traffic and pedestrian movements. The Windsor-Essex Parkway will generally follow the route of Talbot Road and Huron Church Road from the current terminus of Highway 401 to the E.C. Row Expressway, where the new Parkway will diverge from Huron Chruch Road and head due west towards the proposed international bridge site near LaSalle. It should be noted that the Windsor-Essex Parkway may not necessarily be designated as Highway 401, although it is highly probable given that the Windsor-Essex Parkway will extend seamlessly from the current western terminus of Highway 401 south of Windsor. Pending environmental assessment approval, construction could proceed on this $1.6 billion project as early as 2009. The project is expected to create over 12,000 construction jobs in addition to greatly easing traffic congestion and reducing border crossing delays. The diversion of truck traffic onto the new Windsor-Essex Parkway will result in a more pleasant environment along local Windsor streets, which have long been overburdened with international traffic.
On August 24, 2007, Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield announced that Highway 401 from Trenton to Toronto would be dedicated as the "Highway of Heroes". The intent of this new designation is to commemorate Canada's fallen soldiers who died while serving in Afghanistan. This section of Highway 401 has witnessed several repatriation ceremonies recently and it is hoped that the new highway designation will encourage Canadians to reflect upon the sacrifices that our Armed Forces have made while serving in Afghanistan. New highway signs bearing a large red poppy and the commemorative Highway of Heroes designation were installed along Highway 401 between Toronto and Trenton in September 2007.
There are 19 Service Centres located along Highway 401. These centres are open 24 hours a day and offer motorists convenient access to fuel, restaurants and picnic areas. The centres are located about every 80 km (50 miles) except through the GTA, where services are generally available at almost every interchange. The posted speed limit on Highway 401 is 100 km/h (60 mph). Exits along Highway 401 are numbered based on their distance from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. Approximate distances along the highway can therefore be calculated by subtracting one exit number from another. For example, the distance from Highway 404 (Exit 375) to Highway 37 (Exit 544) is 169 km (544 - 375 = 169).
About the Author:
Henry Kramer writes articles for Government and public institutions and recently has been granted publishing priviliges at http://www.ontariohighway.ca - 401 Conditions
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