Highway 427 (Ontario)

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Highway 427 as part of the 400-series network

Highway 427 is a 400-Series Highway in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada, that runs from immediately south of the Queen Elizabeth Way/Gardiner Expressway interchange (its exact southern terminus is on the Brown's Line at Coules Court, just south of Evans Avenue) in Toronto to Highway 7 in Vaughan. It is 21.3 km in length.

Highway 427 is Ontario's second busiest freeway by volume, and has no fewer than 12 lanes between the QEW/Gardiner and Highway 401, divided into an collector-express system similar to that of Highway 401, replacing "service roads" in the 1970s. Notable about Highway 427 are its several multi-level interchanges; the junctions with QEW and Highway 401 were Ontario's first 4-level interchanges constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s while the interchanges with Highway 409 and Highway 407 are more recent and were completed in 1992 and 1995.

Highway 427 directly north of the Highway 401/27/Eglinton mega-interchange. Initially built in 1964 as the Airport Expressway, this was widened in the late 1990s.

It is a primary feeder route into Toronto Pearson International Airport. Much of the traffic coming from Highway 407, Highway 401 (eastbound), and the QEW/Gardiner uses Highway 427 for airport access, but it also serves the western portion of Etobicoke and the northeastern portion of Mississauga. It is also used as a bypass of the QEW for traffic originating from downtown Toronto headed towards the western suburbs, via Highway 401's collector lanes that provide a direct link between Highway 427 and Highway 403. Eastbound commuters on the QEW who want to bypass downtown Toronto use Highway 427 to reach Highway 401.

Contents

1 History
2 Collector-Express Setup
3 Recent developments
4 Lane Configurations from South to North
5 Interchanges from South to North
6 Proposed Interchanges from South to North (exit numbers assumed)
7 Reference

History

Highway 427 was inaugurated in 1972 and incorporated two existing routes; the freeway portion of Highway 27 between the QEW and Highway 401 (the initial 401 and Highway 27 was the "Toronto Bypass" in the 1950s), and the "Airport Expressway" (that section of 427 is still known by the name since it opened in 1964) between the 401 and Toronto Pearson International Airport since the construction of the former Terminal 1 in the 1960s. By the mid-1980s the northern stretch from Highway 401 to Highway 7 was completed, replacing the former secondary route known as Indian Road.

Since 1972, there has been no direct access from Highway 401 westbound to Highway 427 northbound and vice versa; that link is provided by Highway 409 instead. The complicated 401-427 interchange also includes high-speed ramps between from Eglinton Avenue westbound to Highway 401 westbound, Highway 427, and Highway 27; those freeway-to-freeway connectors (which seem excessive for an arterial road like Eglinton) were meant for the never-built Richview Expressway which was proposed to run eastward from that interchange, parallel to Eglinton. Plans to have Highway 403 run directly to the 401-427 interchange were scrapped and it was replaced by a collector-express setup on Highway 401 from 403's eventual eastern teminus (401-403-410 interchange) to 427.

Collector-Express Setup

Highway 427 between QEW and Dundas Street, showing the 14-lane cross-section.

Unlike Highway 401 whose main collector-express system is also designed to increase the overall capacity of the road, Highway 427's collector-express system merely separates two streams of traffic, squeezing two parallel freeways into one corridor. The express lanes connect the QEW/Gardiner with 401 and exclusively lead to freeway-to-freeway ramps, while the collector lanes link up Highway 27 with Browns Line and have interchanges with local traffic. By contrast, on Highway 401, the collectors enjoy equal access to intersecting freeways as the express lanes do, so their use is not restricted to local traffic.

One unique feature of Highway 427's collector-express system is its numerous RIRO onramps and offramps to serve residential traffic, in addition to its standard Parclo interchanges with several major arterials.

There are transfers between express and collector lanes; however 401/Airport to QEW/Gardiner traffic has grown far heavier, making the express lanes congested while the collectors are underused. A good example of this jam occurs on Highway 427 southbound at the collector-to-express transfer near Bloor Street, where the majority of commuters need to get to the express lanes in order to reach the QEW/Gardiner. There is little utility for the collectors south of that transfer since only a minority of motorists are headed for local traffic (The Queensway, Evans Avenue, Browns Line). Recent 427-QEW interchange improvements in 2001-2002 allowed southbound traffic in the collector lanes to access the Gardiner Expressway.

Recent developments

There is talk of expanding this route further north from Vaughan, to at least Highway 89, and possibly as far north as Barrie, as a parallel bypass of the existing Highway 400 whose traffic levels are expected to outstrip expansion capacity in the next 20 years. No firm plans for the 427 an extension have been put forward yet, but current plans will likely extend the road to Rutherford Road or possibly Major Mackenzie Drive.

Lane Configurations from South to North

Section	Travel Lanes
Evans Avenue to Queen Elizabeth Way/Gardiner Expressway	2 Lanes per Direction
Queen Elizabeth Way/Gardiner Expressway to Dundas Street	7 Lanes per Direction (4 express, 3 local)
Dundas Street to Burnhamthorpe Road	6 Lanes per Direction (3 express, 3 local)
Burnhamthorpe Road to Highway 401	7 Lanes per Direction (4 express, 3 local)
Highway 401 to Dixon Road/Airport Road/Toronto Pearson International Airport	5 Lanes per Direction
Dixon Road/Airport Road/Toronto Pearson International Airport to Rexdale Boulevard/Derry Road	3 Lanes per Direction
Rexdale Boulevard/Derry Road to Finch Avenue	3 Lanes Southbound, 2 Lanes Northbound
Finch Avenue to Highway 407	2 Lanes per Direction
Highway 407 to Highway 7 (York Road 7)	2 Lanes Southbound, 3 Lanes Northbound

Interchanges from South to North

Municipality	Kilometre Post*	Intersecting Roads
Toronto	0	Queen Elizabeth Way/Gardiner Expressway
Toronto	1	The Queensway
Toronto	2	Dundas Street
Toronto	4	Burnhamthorpe Road
Toronto	5	Rathburn Road
Toronto	7	Eglinton Avenue/Highway 27/Highway 401
Toronto - Mississauga Boundary	12	Dixon Road/Airport Road/Toronto Pearson International Airport
Toronto - Mississauga Boundary	13	Highway 409
Toronto - Mississauga Boundary	16	Rexdale Boulevard/Derry Road
Toronto - Mississauga Boundary	18	Finch Avenue
Vaughan	20	Highway 407
Vaughan	22	Highway 7 (York Road 7)

No exit numbers are posted on Highway 427, although they may be when the highway is extended.

Proposed Interchanges from South to North (exit numbers assumed)

Municipality	Kilometre Post*	Intersecting Roads
Vaughan	24	Langstaff Road (York Road 72)
Vaughan	26	Rutherford Road (York Road 73)
Vaughan	28	Major Mackenzie Drive (York Road 25)
Vaughan	33	Kirby Sideroad
King	37	King Road (York Road 11)
King	43	17th Sideroad
King - New Tecumseth Boundary	50	Highway 9
New Tecumseth	56	New Tecumseth 5th Line
New Tecumseth	60	New Tecumseth 8th Line (Simcoe County Road 1)
New Tecumseth	63	Bradford Bypass (proposed freeway)

Reference

[History of Ontario's Kings Highways - Hwy 427]

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