Highway 7 (Ontario)

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Highway 7

Direction:	East/West

The King's Highway No. 7 is a provincially maintained highway in the province of Ontario, Canada. At its peak, Highway 7 measured a total distance of 716 km in length, stretching from Highway 40 east of Sarnia in southwestern Ontario to Highway 417 southwest of Kanata in eastern Ontario. Ontarians often referred to Highway 7 as the Trans-Canada Highway although it only forms part of the Trans-Canada Highway east of Highway 12 near Sunderland.

In 1997 and 1998, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation downloaded portions of the highway to regional and municipal governments. Because of this, there are now two (once three) separated sections of Highway 7.

1 Western segment
2 Central and eastern segments
3 Upgrades
4 Popular Culture
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Western segment

The western segment of Highway 7 runs from Elginfield in Middlesex County in the southwest to the Halton - Peel border at Norval near Brampton. This covers a distance of 152.6 km. This highway is a freeway for a 22.4 km stretch from Waterloo regional road 6 south of Baden to Highway 85 in Kitchener; this is part of the Conestoga Parkway. Plans to build a freeway bypass of Highway 7 from Kitchener, through Guelph to Vaughan are currently in development. With only two travel lanes, the section between Kitchener and Guelph is one of the most congested in the province.

When Highway 7 is running in York Region, it is assigned as York Regional Road 7.

At one point Highway 7 ran as far west as Sarnia; that segment was downgraded on January 1, 1998 and is now known as London Line 22 (this also connects the former Highway 22, superseded by Highway 402), from London to Sarnia. The western segment was separated from the central segment on April 1, 1997, when the stretch from Brampton to Markham was downloaded due to the opening of Highway 407. Part of that segment through Richmond Hill and Markham was relocated on a new alignment (as a 6 lane at-grade expressway) in 1987 in order to make way for Highway 407; the former routing incorporated Langstaff Road. Highway 7 through York Region, despite no longer being a provincial highway, is still officially named Highway 7 and received the number York Road 7, displacing Islington Avenue which was redesignated York Road 17. In 2005, Highway 7 was made the second main arterial for York Region's VIVA rapid transit service (after Yonge Street). Parts of the Markham portion were once called Wellington Street, but only a stub of the old road exists today east of Markham Road.

[edit] Central and eastern segments

The central segment of Highway 7 runs for 136.1 km from Markham Road in Markham to Highway 7A, southwest of Peterborough. A distance of only 6 km separated the central segment from the eastern segment. This separation was eliminated in 2003. The Durham Region section from the York-Durham Line (Regional Road 30) to Sideline 16 at Brougham (the eastern terminus of Highway 407 was scheduled to be downloaded to Durham Region in 2006, but these plans were cancelled.

At its junction with Highway 12 at Brooklin, Highway 7 assumes a north-south routing and is multiplexed with Highway 12 to Sunderland. The section from Highway 12 north of Sunderland to its eastern terminus is designated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The eastern segment of Highway 7, which was separated from the central segment by only 6 km, had a total length of 242.8 km. It begins at Highway 115 in Peterborough, and runs to Highway 417 near Kanata, which is in the Ottawa region. This highway is a freeway for its first 6.5 km, from Highway 115 to Lansdowne Street East (once Highway 7B) in Peterborough. Its entire length is part of the Trans-Canada Highway.

In 2003, these two segments were connected by a renumbering around Peterborough, which created a new multiplex with Highway 115 and renumbered 7A to 7 in southwest Peterborough in order to connect them. The same year, construction started on a 21-km four-phase project between the 417 in Ottawa and McNeely Avenue (the former Highway 15 in Carleton Place) to convert Highway 7 to a four-lane, controlled access highway. Construction was once promised to be complete by 2006, but is now behind that schedule by at least two years.

[edit] Upgrades

On March 23, 2007, Newswire reported that the Ministry of Transportation has announced an Environemntal Assessment for a four lane dual-carriageway highway between Kitchener, and Guelph, as traffic on Highway 401 is growing steadily and approaching capacity, along with the current two-lane alignment of Highway 7.

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[edit] Popular Culture

The 2006 album Atlantis: Hymns for Disco by rapper k-os, has a track that takes the name of Highway 7. As he from Whitby, Ontario, it is safe to assume that it references the highway.