QUEEN ELIZABETH WAY

The 'Queen Elizabeth Way' (commonly referred to as the 'QEW', 'Q', 'QE', or 'Queen-E') is a vital 400-Series freeway in Ontario, Canada. It links Buffalo, New York, USA and the Niagara Peninsula with Toronto and its western suburbs. The freeway starts at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ontario and continues 139 kilometres (86 mi) through Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville and Mississauga before ending at the junction of Highway 427 and the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto. The QEW is one of Ontario's busier highways with over 200,000 average trips per day.
Major freeway junctions are located at Highway 420, Highway 405, Highway 406, Highway 403 in Burlington, Highway 407, Highway 403 in Oakville and Highway 427. A section of QEW through Halton Region (exits 101 through 123) has been concurrently signed with Highway 403 since 2002.
The Queen Elizabeth Way originally started as a divided-highway upgrade of the Middle Road through what is now Halton and Peel Region in 1936. At the time, the Middle Road was one of the first examples of a divided highway anywhere in the world, and it was the forerunner to the current superhighway. Various upgrades during the 1940s and 1950s brought the Queen Elizabeth Way up to modern freeway standards between Toronto and Hamilton, and later over its entire length.

Contents

Name and signage

Hamilton-Niagara section

Mississauga-Toronto section

Today

Future

Trivia

Volume information (2005)

Lane configurations from Fort Erie to Toronto

Exit list

See also

References

External links

Name and signage

The Queen Elizabeth Way was not named for Queen Elizabeth I or II, but for the Queen Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother) who was Queen Consort of King George VI. In 1939 King George and Queen Elizabeth made a tour of Canada to celebrate his coronation and make themselves known to their Canadian subjects.
The signs identifying the highway originally showed its full name only in small letters, with large script letters 'ER' (for ''Elizabeth Regina'', or Queen Elizabeth in Latin) where the highway number would go on other signs. In 1955 these were replaced by 'QEW' signs similar to Ontario's usual "King's Highway" signs, but with blue lettering on a yellow background instead of the usual black on white (trailblazer shields, indicating routes "to" QEW, switch the colours to yellow on blue).
Because the highway curves sharply around the end of Lake Ontario, its directions are not signed with compass points as usual on Canadian highways, but with destination cities. ''QEW Toronto'' is used consistently for the direction toward Toronto. In the other direction, the highway is signed ''QEW Hamilton'' from Toronto as far as Hamilton, ''QEW Niagara'' as far as Niagara Falls, and ''QEW Fort Erie'' thereafter.

The QEW is not publicly referred to by any route number, but the MTO has referred to it as 'Highway 451' in annual reports.^[1] The number is also used to track contracts and maintenance.

Hamilton-Niagara section

The Queen Elizabeth Way originally ran from Toronto to the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. In the 1950s, a second branch was constructed, starting from a traffic circle near Niagara Falls and extending south on the present route to Fort Erie. The original route, now a spur, was still designated as part of the QEW until 1972 when it was reconstructed and redesignated Highway 420.
In 1960, the original section of the QEW west of Guelph Line was relocated on a new alignment known as the ''Freeman Diversion'' which improved access to the proposed Burlington Skyway and allowed the ''Freeman Interchange'' (a "semi-directional T" interchange) to be constructed with the future Highway 403. The old bypassed segment was renamed Plains Road (which was never a freeway and is now a minor arterial road) and the new QEW branched off from it in a Y-junction partial interchange.
High-level bridges were constructed at Hamilton Harbour (the Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway) and the Welland Canal in St. Catharines (the Garden City Skyway) in the 1960s to allow free movement of traffic without the need to stop for drawbridges; tolls on these bridges were eventually removed.
In 1978, the familiar Stoney Creek traffic circle with Highway 20 Centennial Parkway was removed in favour of a conventional parclo interchange.
To meet growing demand, the Burlington Skyway was twinned in the year 1985. Concurrently, the QEW from Burlington Street to Highway 403 (Burlington) was reconstructed with 8 lanes, a variable lighting system, state-of-the-art changeable message signs and traffic cameras, and modern parclo interchanges with Burlington Street, Northshore Boulevard, and Fairview Street.
In the early to late 1990s, the Freeman Interchange was reconfigured to accommodate Highway 407, and an interchange was added at Brant Street. In 2000–2001, QEW was widened to 6 lanes from Brant Street to Guelph Line and access to Plains Road was removed. In 2004-2005, the Guelph Line interchange was reconstructed.
In 2000, the British-style roundabout junction with Erin Mills Parkway, which dated back to the early 1960s, was completely reconstructed as a standard parclo A4 interchange.
As part of the Red Hill Valley Parkway currently under construction, the Burlington Street and Centennial Parkway interchanges are currently being reconstructed, including the construction of collector lanes on the south (Niagara-bound) side of the highway.
The QEW is also well known for its vintage highway architecture, which is slowly being replaced as the highway is upgraded through St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. An original 1936 rail overpass at Sandplant Hill in Niagara Falls was slowly removed in 2005 and 2006, and completely replaced in late 2006 (the process was gradual to maintain rail traffic). The 1937-vintage Martindale Road overpass in St. Catharines is due to be replaced in 2007.

Mississauga-Toronto section

The QEW was called the Middle Road from 1936 to 1939 as a highway connecting Hamilton with Toronto. The QEW formerly continued beyond Highway 427 to the old Toronto city limits at the Humber River; this section was downloaded from provincial to municipal ownership in 1997, and became part of the Gardiner Expressway. A monument was originally located at the highway's Toronto terminus, dedicated to the 1939 visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and consisted of a column with a crown at the top and a lion at the base. The monument was moved in the mid 1970s in order to accommodate widening of the original QEW, and is now located in the nearby Sir Casimir Gzowski Park along Lake Ontario, on the east side of the Humber River.
The late-1960s widening project coincided with the construction of the complex interchange with Highway 427 (formerly Highway 27) and resulted in an 8 to 10 lane QEW stretching to the Humber River, with a short collector-express system serving Kipling Avenue and Islington Avenue. Ramp meters were also added to traffic entering the Toronto-bound lanes from Ford Drive to Cawthra Road in 1975. These meters are only activated during the morning rush hour.
This section has changed little since it was downloaded to Toronto. Since the end of 2003, the conventional truss lighting poles from the late 1960s have been replaced west of Kipling Avenue and east of Royal York Road, in favour of shaded high-mast lighting like that of the Don Valley Parkway. Bilingual English-French signs were also removed in the section maintained by the City of Toronto, and replaced with English-only signs.

Today

Today, the QEW is a full four- to eight-lane freeway running through the heart of Ontario's tourist region. Construction is currently underway to widen the highway from four to six lanes through all of St. Catharines and Niagara Falls as well as a full eight to ten-lane widening though Halton Region. Due to increased traffic volumes and environmental issues throughout the Niagara Region, plans are underway to construct Mid-Peninsula Highway to bypass the QEW, running from Fort Erie through Welland ending in Burlington at Highway 407.

Future

The Ministry's future plans are to add HOV or car pool lanes on the QEW/403 in the sections from Toronto to St. Catharines. The MTO is making plans to widen the stretch from Bronte Creek and Sixteen Mile Creek in Oakville to prepare for future HOV lanes. Tenders have been awarded, and twinning of the existing bridges is under construction.
[1]

Trivia

★ Ontario’s only other 400-series highway to have had a unique provincial highway shield with letters instead of a number is Highway 401, which is designated concurrently as the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway. "M-C" shields used to be a common sight along the highway, but the MTO has been phasing them out since the late 1990s.

Volume information (2005)

★ Highest volume: 175,200 AADT from Dixie Road (Exit 136) to Evans Avenue (Exit 138)

★ Lowest volume: 17,900 AADT Concession Road (Exit 1) to Thompson Road (Exit 2)

Lane configurations from Fort Erie to Toronto

Section	Travel Lanes
Peace Bridge to Thompson Road	3-4 lanes in each direction
Thompson Road to McLeod Road (Niagara Road 49)	2 lanes in each direction
McLeod Road to Mountain Road (Niagara Road 101)	2 lanes in each direction 1 additional lane per direction currently under planning
Mountain Road to Highway 405	2 lanes in each direction 1 additional lane per direction currently under construction
Highway 405 to Niagara Street (Niagara Road 48)/Service Road	3 lanes in each direction
Niagara Street/Service Road to Highway 406	2 lanes in each direction 1 additional lane per direction currently under construction
Highway 406 to Red Hill Valley Parkway	3 lanes in each direction 1 HOV lane per direction currently under planning
Red Hill Valley Parkway to North Shore Boulevard/Eastport Drive	4 lanes in each direction
North Shore Boulevard/Eastport Drive to Fairview Street/Plains Road	4 lanes in each direction
Fairview Street/Plains Road to Brant Street	2 lanes in each direction (through QEW-403-407 Freeman Interchange)
Brant Street to Burloak Dr	3 lanes in each direction 1 HOV lane per direction currently under planning
Burloak Dr to 3rd Line	3 Lanes in Each Direction 1 HOV lane per direction currently under construction
3rd Line to Trafalgar Road	3 lanes in each direction 1 HOV lane per direction currently under planning
Trafalgar Road to Highway 403 East	4 lanes in each direction 1 HOV lane per direction currently under planning
Highway 403 East to Highway 427/Gardiner Expressway	3 lanes in each direction 1 HOV lane per direction currently under planning

Exit list

Exits are numbered from south (Fort Erie) to north (Toronto).

Location	#	Destinations	Notes
Buffalo, NY			Southbound exit and northbound entrance
			Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Peace Bridge across the Niagara River
Fort Erie
	1	Concession Road	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; signed as exits 1A (north) and 1B (south)
	2	Thompson Road south (RR 122)	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	2	Bertie Street, Central Avenue (RR 124)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	5
	7
	12
Niagara Falls
	16
	21
	27
	30	, Rainbow Bridge to Niagara Falls, USA	Signed as exits 30A (Hwy 420) and 30B (RR 20) southbound
	32		Signed as exits 32A (east) and 32B (west)
	34
Niagara-on-the-Lake	37		Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	38		Signed as extis 38A (RR 89) and 38B (RR 55) southbound
	Garden City Skyway over the Welland Canal
St. Catharines
	44
	46
	47
	48		Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	49
	51
Lincoln	55
	57
	64
Grimsby	68
	71
	74
Hamilton	78
	83
	88
		Red Hill Valley Parkway	Under construction
	89	Burlington Street
	90	Woodward Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	93	Eastport Drive	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	Burlington Skyway over Burlington Bay
Burlington
	97	North Shore Boulevard, Eastport Drive	Former Hwy 2
	99	Plains Road, Fairview Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	100		Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	100		South end of Hwy 403 overlap; southbound exit and northbound entrance
	101		Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	102
	105	Walkers Line
	107
	109	Burloak Drive (RR 21)
Oakville
	110	Service Road	Southbound exit only
	111
	113	3rd Line
	116	Dorval Drive (RR 17)
	117	Kerr Street	Southbound exit only
	118
	119	Royal Windsor Drive	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	123	Ford Drive (RR 13)	Northbound exit is part of the Hwy 403 exit
			North end of Hwy 403 overlap; northbound exit and southbound entrance
	124
Mississauga
	126
	130	Mississauga Road
	132	Hurontario Street	Former Hwy 10
	134
	136		Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Toronto	138	Evans Avenue, West Mall, Brown's Line	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	139		Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		Gardiner Expressway - Toronto	Northbound exit and southbound entrance

See also

★ Gardiner Expressway: incorporates former parts of the Queen Elizabeth Way

★ Golden horseshoe

★ Monarchy in Ontario

References

1. Annual report of the Department of Highways, Ontario, for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1964, p. 98: refers to the Garden City Skyway and Niagara Street interchange projects as being on Highway "451 Q.E.W."

External links

★ Ontario Ministry of Transportation

★ Live QEW Traffic Cameras through Hamilton, Halton Region and Peel Region

★ Live QEW Traffic Cameras through St. Catharines and Niagara Falls

★ QEW History at TheKingsHighway.ca

★ Google Maps: QEW route