Highway 400 (Ontario)

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Highway 400 as part of the 400-series network

The King's Highway 400, more commonly known as Highway 400 or the 400, is a key north-south 400-Series Highway linking Toronto to Central and Northern Ontario. As well, the route is the main route to cottages in Muskoka.

Originally known as the Toronto-Barrie Highway, over the years the route has been widened and extended beyond Barrie to its current terminus in Parry Sound (and eventually its ultimate terminus in Sudbury). The current length of the highway is 209 km or 129 miles

South of Highway 401, provincial control ends at the Maple Avenue overpass and Highway 400 turns into Black Creek Drive. Highway 400 had been completed up to Jane Street in 1966 (alongside the expansion of Highway 401) but plans to extend Highway 400 further south to the Gardiner Expressway had been shelved in the 1970s. Land for the Highway 400 extension was used to build the Black Creek Drive which was completed and transferred to Metro Toronto in 1982.

The junction with Highway 401 is one of the earliest multi-level interchanges built when Highway 401 was widened to a collector-express system in 1967. Because the speed limit on Ontario freeways was raised in 1968 from 80 km/h (50 mph) to 112 km/h (70 mph) (later reduced to 100 km/h (65 mph) in 1976), it rendered this interchange obsolete shortly after its completion. There are several flyover ramps that are not designed to handle speeds that motorists are accustomed to; notably the 400 southbound to 401 westbound ramp which has seen several truck rollovers because of excessive speed, and in the opposite direction the 401 eastbound to 400 northbound ramp which has added rumble strips and a revised 50 km/h speed in order to allow drivers to safely navigate the sharp curve.

Between Highway 401 and Highway 407, Highway 400 is one of the widest highways in the Greater Toronto Area without a collector-express system; the only full interchange is with Finch Avenue. In the 1950s, that stretch was 4-6 lanes wide but a major reconstruction that ended in 1971 saw it widened to 10 lanes. In the 1990s, concurrent with the construction of Highway 407, the section between Highway 401 and Finch Avenue was widened to 12 lanes and that project necessitated the demolition and reconstruction of the Sheppard Avenue overpass. The 1990s also saw the replacing of the 1960s conventional truss lights and metal guardrail with high-mast lighting and an "Ontario tall-wall" concrete median barrier.

The 400-407 junction is the only 4-way 4-level stack interchange in Ontario (during the Highway 407 design, similar 4-level interchanges were planned at Highway 410 and Highway 404 as well but they were scaled to cut costs). North of Highway 407, Highway 400 has been extensively reconstructed in the early 1990s to accommodate incoming Highway 407 traffic and there is a small collector-express system serving Highway 7 and Langstaff Road. In the early 2000s, the junctions with Rutherford Road and Major Mackenzie Drive were extensively reconstructed to modern Parclo A4 configurations, and a new partial interchange was added for Bass Pro Mills Drive in 2004 to accommodate the opening of the Vaughan Mills shopping centre.

Highway 400 North to Major Mackenzie Drive.

Highway 400 was one of the original 400-series freeways, along with the QEW, Highway 401, and Highway 402. The rural section between Vaughan and Barrie has many overpass bridges still in use that date back to the 1950s (most of which are substandard compared to most modern freeways, with clearances generally between 4.0m and 4.3m (between 13'3" and 14'3") in the outermost lane and several extremely narrow acceleration lanes), as well as some notable low standard interchange ramps such as at Canal Road (Exit 58), which is a 20 km/h (15 mph) RIRO entrance.

Highway 400's interchange with Highway 518 is the first and only interchange between a 400-series highway and a secondary highway in the province, but more will be built as the 400 is extended northwards.

Uniquely, Highway 400 is pronounced as "Four-Hundred", while for other 400-series highways, Highway 401 is pronounced "Four-O-One" and Highway 427 is pronounced "Four-Twenty-Seven" or "Four-Two-Seven".

Expansion

Continued construction will eventually extend Highway 400 to the city of Greater Sudbury in Northern Ontario, along the existing Highway 69 corridor.

This commitment was originally made in 1991 by the New Democrat government of Bob Rae. Although construction did commence at the highway's southern end, the project was curtailed by the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris shortly after the 1995 provincial election, with construction ending at the highway's current terminus in Parry Sound.

The continued construction to Sudbury was subsequently reinstated by Harris' successor (and former MPP for Parry Sound—Muskoka), Ernie Eves in 2002.

In 2004, construction began on the segment from Sudbury southwards to Estaire, and route planning studies were completed for the Estaire to Parry Sound branch. Although the timetable may be subject to change, the construction is currently scheduled to be completed in 2017.

Construction Phases - Toronto section

• Highway 401 to Jane Street 1966
• Jane Street to Weston Road 1975 - later as Black Creek Drive in 1985 (an at-grade municipal expressway that is not part of Highway 400, although the land was initially intended for a controlled-access Highway 400 south extension)

Volume Information (2002)

• Highest Volume: 179,700 vehicles Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) from Highway 401 (Exit 23) to Finch Avenue (Exit 25)
• Lowest Volume: 8,600 vehicles AADT from Crooked Bay Road (Exit 168) to Highway 69 southern split (Exit 189)

Lane Configurations from South to North

Interchanges from South to North

Municipality	#	Intersecting Road(s)	Notes
Toronto	20	Jane Street
21	Highway 401
25	Finch Avenue
Vaughan	26	Steeles Avenue	Northbound exit, southbound entrance
	27	Highway 407	[Interchange photo]
	29	Highway 7 (York Road 7)
	30	Langstaff Road (York Road 72)	No entrance to northbound 400
	32	Bass Pro Mills Drive (northbound only)	Northbound exit only
	33	Rutherford Road (York Road 73)	Northbound access to Paramount Canada's Wonderland
	35	Major Mackenzie Drive (York Road 25)	Southbound access to Paramount Canada's Wonderland
King	43	King Road (York Road 11)
	52	Lloydtown-Aurora Road (York Road 16)
	55	Highway 9 / York Road 31
Bradford-West Gwillimbury	58	Canal Road	Substandard RIRO entrance
	64	Former Highway 88 / Simcoe Road 88
Innisfil	75	Highway 89 / Simcoe Road 89
	85	Innisfil Beach Road (Simcoe Road 21)
Barrie	90	Mapleview Drive	Formerly Molson Park Drive
	94	Essa Road (former Highway 27)
	96	Dunlop Street (Simcoe Road 90) / (former Highway 90)
	98	Bayfield Street (Highway 26)
	102	Duckworth Street
Springwater	104*	Highway 11	Northbound must exit (defaults onto 11), southbound left entrance
	111	Forbes Road (Simcoe Road 11)
	117	Horseshoe Valley Road (Simcoe Road 22)
Oro-Medonte	121	Highway 93 / Simcoe Road 93
	131	Mount St. Louis Road
	136	Moonstone Road (Simcoe Road 19)
	137	Lower Big Chute Road	Northbound exit only
Severn	141	Highway 12 South / Vasey Road (Simcoe Road 23)	Begin multiplex with 12
	147	Highway 12 North / Simcoe Road 16	End multiplex with 12
	149	Quarry Road (Simcoe Road 59) / Tay Line 2
	153	Port Severn Road South
Georgian Bay	156	Muskoka Road (Muskoka Road 5) / Port Severn Road North
	162	South Bay Road (Muskoka Road 48) / Muskoka Road 34
	168	Crooked Bay Road / Georgian Bay Road
	174	South Gibson Lake Road (Muskoka Road 33)
	177	Go Home Lake Road (Muskoka Road 32) / Muskoka Road 38	Begin multiplex with 69
	182*	[Iroquois Cranberry Growers] Drive	Wahta Mohawk Territory - Currently an at-grade intersection; interchange under construction
	185*	12 Mile Lake Road (Muskoka Road 12)	Currently an at-grade intersection; interchange under construction
	189	Highway 69 / Tower Road	End multiplex with 69
Seguin	207	Highway 141
	213	Highway 69
	214	Horseshoe Lake Road
	217	Oastler Park Drive / Badger Road
	220	Highway 518 / Hunter Drive
Parry Sound	224	Bowes Street / McDougall Road	Current end of 400

• *Exit number not signed, based on kilometre post

The Highway 400 - Highway 11 split

At the north end of Barrie, Highway 400 makes a brief turn and runs slightly eastbound. It is at this point that Highway 11 begins. Many motorists get confused as the Highway 11 lanes seem to be a natural continuation of Highway 400; whereas Highway 400 actually splits left. In fact, this junction of the two roads is often referred to as "the split".

Highway 400 goes to Parry Sound and Highway 11 goes to Orillia.

When Highway 400 was first constucted (and ended in Barrie), it actually continued to meet what was Highway 11 (as 11 exited at Penetanguishene Road to enter downtown Barrie before joining Yonge Street), however, the first northward extensions were done about 1 km (0.6 mile) to the west of that interchange. That created the situation of the split. The section between the split and where 11 itself rejoined was officially named Highway 400A until 1997 (although it was signed as Highway 11).

Proposed Interchanges from South to North

Municipality	#	Destinations	Notes
Parry Sound	226	Parry Sound Drive	Currently under construction
McDougall	229	Highway 124	Full interchange under construction; currently a two-lane interchange on Highway 69
	234	Nobel access road	Interchange construction to begin soon; to open 2010
	238	Highway 559	Interchange construction to begin soon; to open 2010
Carling	247	Woods Road
The Archipelago	256	Shebeshekong Road
	263	North Shore Road/Highway 644
	267	Highway 529/Pointe au Baril	Specific alignment still under review
	277	Harris Lake Road
	288	Highway 529/Highway 645
	304	Highway 522
	311	Indian Reserve of French River (access road)
Killarney	319	Highway 607/Hartley Bay Road
	328	Highway 64
	336	Delamere access road
	344	Highway 637
	350	Estaire access road	Existing Highway 69
	356	Nepewassi Road
Greater Sudbury	363	Sudbury Road 537	Interchange under construction
	371	Regent Street (Sudbury Road 46/existing Highway 69)	Interchange under construction)
	376	Highway 17	Final phase to link to twinned Southeast Bypass

• Sources: [Highway 69 Study], [MTO construction map]. Distances are land estimates.

External links

• [History of Ontario's King's Highway — Highway 400]
• [Highway 400 extension Route Planning Studies]