Highway 17 (Ontario)

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Highway 17
Length:	1,960 km
Direction:	East/West
From:	continuation of Ont. Hwy. 417 near Arnprior
To:	continuation of Man. Hwy. 1 at Manitoba border
Major cities:	Pembroke North Bay Sudbury Sault Ste. Marie Thunder Bay

Highway 17 in Mattawa.

Highway 17 is a route of the Trans-Canada Highway through Ontario, Canada. It begins at the western limit of Highway 417 near Arnprior, and continues west to the Manitoba border.

1 Longest highway in Ontario
2 Communities
3 Future construction
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Longest highway in Ontario

It is Ontario's longest provincial highway, with a length of about 1,960 km (1,220 miles). The highway once extended even further, to the Quebec border in East Hawkesbury for a peak length of about 2,140 km (1,330 miles). However, a section of Highway 17 "disappeared" when the Ottawa section of it was upgraded to the freeway Highway 417 in 1971. Highway 17 was not re-routed through Ottawa, nor did it share numbering with Highway 417 to rectify the discontinuity, even though Highway 417 formed a direct link between the western and eastern sections of Highway 17. However, from East Hawkesbury to Ottawa, Highway 17 retained the Trans-Canada Highway routing and signs until it met up again and merged with Highway 417.

In 1997 the provincial government transferred the ownership of a large number of regional roads to municipalities (also known as "provincial downloading"). Since then all portions east of Arnprior have been decommissioned with the construction of Highway 417 westward to Arnprior. What was Highway 17 east of the intersection 113 (known locally as "the Split") in Ottawa is now designated Regional Road 174 and lost its Trans-Canada Highway designation to Highway 417. As construction of Highway 417 continues westward, it will absorb Highway 17, shortening its length.

Highway 17 heading north-west through Cobden

The highway has one existing freeway segment in Greater Sudbury, between the communities of Whitefish and Lively. A segment from Echo Bay to Desbarats is divided expressway with grade-level intersections rather than interchanges, and many points of private access. However, as these segments are not currently connected to other portions of Ontario's freeway network, they will remain designated as Highway 17 for the foreseeable future.

[edit] Communities

Communities that Highway 17 travels through or near. From east to west:

[edit] Future construction

This article contains information about a planned or expected future road.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the road's construction and/or completion approaches and more information becomes available.

Another freeway segment, currently under construction from Sault Ste. Marie to Echo Bay, is scheduled to open in 2008. After the opening of this segment, the current route of Highway 17 between the two locations may become an extension of Highway 638.

Studies are also underway on the extension of Highway 417 through the Ottawa Valley region to Petawawa.

The provincial government has announced that in the 2010s, near the completion date of the Highway 400 extension, the existing Highway 17 freeway segment in Greater Sudbury will be extended eastward to Coniston along the Southwest and Southeast Bypasses. (Environmental studies have also been completed on the freeway's westerly extension to McKerrow, near Espanola, but no construction schedule has been announced to date.)

The MTO has also begun studying a new route for Highway 17 between the communities of Nipigon and Raith.^{[citation needed]} This new route would shave roughly 100 kilometres off the route of the Trans-Canada Highway. Once constructed, the majority of the old route of Highway 11/17 will be simply numbered as Highway 11, while the short distance of existing Highway 17 between Raith and Shabaqua will be designated as a continuation of Highway 102. This highway is likely to become a freeway. Highway 61 will likely extend on the corridor of the current route of Highway 11/17 between Nipigon and Thunder Bay.

Some discussion has taken place regarding the potential freeway conversion of Highway 17's entire route from Sault Ste. Marie to Arnprior, but to date no formal project planning or scheduling has been undertaken beyond the segments noted above. However, a significant amount of forestry has been excavated between Echo Bay and the Greater Sudbury area already; thus a possible freeway corridor between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury is underway.^{[citation needed]} It is believed that the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge may connect to a future freeway segment in Sault Ste. Marie before Highway 417 reaches Sault Ste. Marie or Sudbury.

Any potential extension of Highway 417 into Northern Ontario, however, will face a serious bottleneck at North Bay, where the region's geography has foiled numerous attempts to build a new route bypassing the city's main urban core. Any potential new route east of the city's Trout Lake would require crossing the environmentally protected Mattawa River Provincial Park, while any potential route west of Trout Lake would require significant urban expropriation and demolition.

[edit] Trivia

The last gravel stretch of Hwy 17 was located west of Ignace and was paved in 1967.
The first freeway portion of Highway 17 was built in the Sudbury area. However, the first portion of freeway which was a derivative of Highway 17 (known as Highway 417) was built near Ottawa as an original designation.

[edit] References

Google maps

[edit] External links

Ontario Hwy 17 Photos, by Scott Steeves

Preceded by MB Highway 1	Trans-Canada Highway ON Highway 17	Succeeded by ON Highway 417
Preceded by MB Highway 1		Succeeded by ON Highway 71
Preceded by ON Highway 11		Succeeded by ON Highway 11
Preceded by ON Highway 11		Succeeded by ON Highway 69