Highway 400 (Ontario)

Ontarian Highway serving the center of the Ontario, the highway 400 is the principal NORTH-SOUTH highway of the province, it connects Toronto to the center and the north of the province. The northern section of the highway belongs to the Route transcanadienne.

Description

Known in the past under the name " Toronto-Barrie Highway" , with the passing of years, the highway was prolonged beyond Barrie. At present, it finishes with Parry Sound and possibly it will finish with Sudbury. It makes at present 209 kilometers (129 miles) length.

At its southern end with Toronto, it finishes with the height of Maple Avenue and it becomes Black Creek Drive. In the years 1970, it had been envisaged to prolong the 400 until Gardner Expressway on bank of the Lake Ontario. This project was since abandoned. The intersection between the 400 and the highway 401 with Toronto is one of the exchanging first multi level of the Ontario and was built in 1967 during the construction of the shunt tracks of the 401. At the time, the speed limit was of 50 miles per hour either approximately 80 km/h on the Ontarian highways, but in 1968, it was increased to 70 mph or 112 km/h and was decreased in 1976 to 100 km/h (62 mph) during the metrication. Thus, little time after its construction, this exchanger did not respect already any more the standards of design. Several straps are not designed to allow a traffic at high-speed. For example, maximum speed on the strap between the 401 west and the 400 north is of 50 km/h and of the rough bands were added to slow down the traffic in this marked curve.

Between the highway 401 and the highway 407, the 400 is one of the broadest highways of large the Toronto without having shunt tracks. During its construction, in the years 1950, the highway had between 4 and 6 ways. It was extended to 10 ways in 1971. During the construction of the 407, in the years 1990, the section between the 407 and Finch Avenue were extended to 12 ways. At the time of this decade, a central wall was also built between the two roadways. The only complete exchanger of this section is that of Finch Avenue.

The exchanger 400 -407 is the only exchanger 4 directions 4 stages of the Ontario, during the design of highway 407, other exchangers of the same kind had been planned for the highway 410 and the highway 404, but those were built differently because of the high cost of this type of structure. In the north of the 407, the 400 was gradually rebuilt to serve the traffic coming from new highway 407. The 400 has shunt tracks for the exchangers with the road 7 and Langstaff Road.

The Autoroute 400 is one of the original highways of the series, with the Queen Elizabeth Way, the Autoroute 401, and the Autoroute 402. Several viaducts of the rural portion of the road between Vaughan and Barrie are the original viaducts built in the years 1950 with low heights of release compared to the current standard. Some access ramps are also obsolete, for example at exit 58, speed recommended is of 20 km/h because the curve is very marked.

The Ontarians call the highway the " Furnace-Hundred" (the " Four cents"), whereas for the other highways the such 401 the pronunciation is made " Furnace-O-One" (" Quatre-o-Un").

Prolongation

The prolongations future will bring the highway until Greater Sudbury in the north of the Ontario by borrowing the corridor of current the road 69. This engagement at summer initially taken in 1991 by gouverment the néo democratic of the time. In 1995, the highway was brought into service between Barrie and Parry Sound. Work began again in 2002. In 2004, work started in the area of Sudbury towards the south. According to the current bill book, work was to be finished from here 2017.

Exits of the south towards north

Highway 400

* not numbered Sortie, based on the kilometric beacons
** the exit of the Autoroute 407 is numbered 26 in spite of the fact that it crosses the highway 400 with kilometer 28. Being given that the access ramp to the 407 in northern direction leaves the 400 good before the exit, the exit for the 407 is before exit 27. Therefore, if it would be numbered 28, exit 28 would be before the 27, then to avoid this confusion, it was decided to number the exit for the 407 26 instead of 28.

External bonds

Chart of the highway 400
Ministry for transport of Ontario
List of the exits

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