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Bayer Rapidpoint 400 Blood Gas Analyzer, Bayer Rapidpoint 400 Blood Gas blockscientific.com | Supplier of Hospivac 400 equipment, Hospital Hospivac 400 equipment,... monarchsurgical.com |
The King's Highway 400, more commonly known as Highway 400 or the 400, is a key north-south 400-Series Highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that links the city of Toronto to the central and northern sections of the province. As such, it serves as the primary route from Toronto to "cottage country" in the Muskoka region of Ontario.
[edit] DescriptionOriginally known as the Toronto-Barrie Highway, over the years the route has been widened and extended beyond Barrie to its current terminus in Parry Sound (and its ultimate terminus in Sudbury). As of 2009[update], the length of the highway is 209.0 km (129.9 mi). South of Highway 401, provincial control ends at the Maple Leaf Drive overpass and Highway 400 turns into Black Creek Drive. Highway 400 had been completed up to Jane Street in 1966 (alongside the expansion of Highway 401) but plans to extend Highway 400 further south to the Gardiner Expressway had been shelved in the 1970s. Land for the Highway 400 extension was used to build the Black Creek Drive which was completed and transferred to Metro Toronto in 1982. The junction with Highway 401 is one of the earliest multi-level interchanges built when Highway 401 was widened to a collector-express system in 1972. Because the speed limit on Ontario freeways was raised in 1968 from 60 to 70 mph (97 to 110 km/h) it rendered this interchange obsolete shortly after its completion.[citation needed] There are several flyover ramps that are not designed to handle speeds that motorists are accustomed to; notably the 400 southbound to 401 westbound ramp which has seen several truck rollovers because of excessive speed, and in the opposite direction the 401 eastbound to 400 northbound ramp which has added rumble strips and a revised 50 km/h (31 mph) speed in order to allow drivers to safely navigate the sharp curve. Between Highway 401 and Highway 407, Highway 400 is one of the widest highways in the Greater Toronto Area without a collector-express system; the only full interchange is with Finch Avenue. In the 1950s, that stretch was 4-6 lanes wide but a major reconstruction that ended in 1971 saw it widened to 10 lanes. In the 1990s, concurrent with the construction of Highway 407, the section between Highway 401 and Finch Avenue was widened to 12 lanes and that project necessitated the demolition and reconstruction of the Sheppard Avenue overpass. The 1990s also saw the replacing of the 1960s conventional truss lights and metal guardrail with high-mast lighting and an "Ontario tall-wall" concrete median barrier.  The 400-407 junction is the only 4-way 4-level stack interchange in Ontario (during the Highway 407 design, similar 4-level interchanges were planned at Highway 410 and Highway 404 as well but they were scaled to cut costs, and are now clover-stack interchanges. North of Highway 407, Highway 400 has been extensively reconstructed in the early 1990s to accommodate incoming Highway 407 traffic and there is a small collector-express system serving Highway 7 and Langstaff Road.[2] In the early 2000s, the junctions with Rutherford Road and Major Mackenzie Drive were extensively reconstructed to modern Parclo A4 configurations, and a new partial interchange was added for Bass Pro Mills Drive in 2004 to accommodate the opening of the Vaughan Mills shopping centre. Highway 400 was one of the original 400-series freeways, along with the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), Highway 401, and Highway 402. The rural section between Vaughan and Barrie has many overpass bridges still in use that date back to the 1950s (most of which are substandard compared to most modern freeways, with clearances generally between 4.0 m (13 ft) and 4.3 m (14 ft) in the outermost lane and several extremely narrow acceleration lanes). From Innisfil Beach Road to Simcoe Road 88, some work is being done[when?] to the bridges. The right lane is closed occasionally every night so that the bridges can be widened and possibly replaced with modern overpasses in preparation for the planned widening from 6 to 8 lanes from Highway 9 to Highway 11. Highway 400 also has some notable low standard interchanges such as at Canal Road (Exit 58), where two bidirectional, one-lane "ramps" meet the freeway at a 90° angle, without even turning tapers. Also from Canal Road to the junction at Highway 11, most of the median is an old style box beam guardrail. The rails are rusty and are responsible for many accidents involving vehicles going through the median and into oncoming traffic. The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and Simcoe County are working to have better rails installed and finally Ontario tall wall barriers when the highway is widened.[3]. A spur route designated Highway 400A existed until 1997, linking Highway 400 and Highway 11 north of Barrie. When Highway 400 was first constructed to its original northern terminus, it continued onwards to meet Highway 11 at an interchange with Penetanguishene Road, which carried the Highway 11 alignment through downtown Barrie at the time. The first extensions to Parry Sound were performed 1 km (0.62 mi) south of that interchange, creating a 1 km (0.62 mi) gap between Highway 11 and Highway 400 designated as Highway 400A and exclusively signed with trailblazers. When Highway 11 along Penetanguishene Road and Yonge Street was downloaded to municipal authorities in the late 1990s, the designation of Highway 11 was extended to the interchange with Highway 400, and Highway 400A ceased to exist. Northbound traffic on Highway 400 towards Parry Sound and Sudbury must therefore keep right at the interchange, while the two leftmost lanes become Highway 11 to Orillia and eventually North Bay (designated as a control city). Southbound traffic on 400 and 11 simply merges together. Highway 400's interchange with Highway 518 is the only interchange between a 400-series highway and a secondary highway in the province, but more will be built as the 400 is extended northwards. [edit] Expansion Construction is currently underway to extend Highway 400 to the city of Greater Sudbury in Northern Ontario, along the existing Highway 69 corridor. Although the timetable may be subject to change, Highway 400's entire route to Sudbury is currently scheduled for completion in 2017. This commitment was originally made in 1991 by the New Democrat government of Bob Rae. Although construction did commence at the highway's southern end, the project was curtailed by the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris shortly after the 1995 provincial election, with construction ending at the highway's current terminus in Parry Sound. The continued construction to Sudbury was subsequently reinstated by Harris' successor Ernie Eves in 2002. In 2004, construction began on the segment from Sudbury southwards to Estaire, and route planning studies were completed for the Estaire to Parry Sound branch. Portions of the route will be opened to traffic as construction is completed — the next segment from Parry Sound to Nobel is currently scheduled to open in 2010, and the segment immediately south of Sudbury opened in 2009.[4] As the Sudbury segment is discontinuous with the Highway 400 route, however, it will not be renumbered as part of Highway 400 until the remainder of the construction is completed in the mid-2010s. As of July 2008, the newly constructed lanes at the Wahta Gap are now fully in operation. As of November 2008, Highway 69 has been switched over to the new lanes between Parry Sound and Nobel while upgrades are done to the existing lanes. A few private roads, including a private access road to Global Ontario's Midland-area transmitter ("Global Tower Road"), remain at-grade Right-in/right-out (RIRO)-style intersections (with no left turns), although these are extremely low-traffic routes which neither warrant a full interchange nor interfere in any significant way with Highway 400 traffic. [edit] Construction phases (Toronto section)
[edit] Volume information (2005)
[edit] Control citiesFrom South to North:
Notes: In Barrie, signs also say "Sudbury, Via Hwy. 69" and "North Bay, Via Hwy. 11" Also, Parry Sound and Barrie are not listed as control cities north of Port Severn. [edit] Lane configurations from south to north
[edit] Exit list
[edit] Service centresThe service centres are located at the following points on Highway 400 and contain the following services:
[edit] Status of construction activityAs of fall 2008, only a 26 km (16 mi) segment of the future Highway 400 extension, from the Pickerel River to the Magnetawan First Nation, remains in the initial assessment phase. The entire remainder of the route is now in the engineering, property acquisition or full construction stages.[5]
[edit] Proposed interchanges from south to north
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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