Queen Elizabeth Way
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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 km 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 1939. 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.
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Name and signage
The QEW is not referred to by any route number, and many falsely think of it as Ontario's hidden Highway 1. However, although never signed, the QEW does have the secret designation of Highway 451, which is ironic given that it is the oldest member of the 400-Series Highway network and has the highest highway King's Highway number. (In planning documents in the 1940s, the QEW was also referred to as Highway 402, although that number has since been given to another of Ontario's 400-series highways.) The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) uses the Highway 451 designation internally to track highway contracts and maintenance. The number "451" was chosen presumably because, at the time, it was unlikely that so many 400-Series highways would be built that MTO would go through numbers 400-450. In addition, no Highway 51 existed at the time, and the only Highway 51 was a short connector road between Highway 3 and Rondeau Provincial Park located in Chatham-Kent so there is no concern over the number being assigned to a 400-Series "upgrade" highway (like Highway 410 or Highway 427).
The highway was not named for Queen Elizabeth I or Queen Elizabeth II, but for the Queen Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother) who was married to 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. Confused tourists from the U.S. believed that "ER" was named for Eleanor Roosevelt, the President's wife at the time. 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 colors 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 with other 400-series highways, but with destination cities, such as QEW Toronto. The MTO is quite consistent with how directions are signed. QEW Toronto is used consistently for traffic that heads towards Toronto, regardless of its final destination. On the other hand, different names are used in the opposite direction. The highway is signed QEW Hamilton between Toronto and Hamilton; QEW Niagara between Hamilton and Niagara Falls; and, finally, QEW Fort Erie between Niagara Falls and Fort Erie.
Hamilton-Niagara section
The Queen Elizabeth Way was extended further south to Fort Erie after World War II, leaving the QEW's original route to the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls as a spur which later became Highway 420 after reconstruction in 1972.
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 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. 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 is halfway through being removed (the process is gradual to maintain rail traffic), and will be completely replaced soon, and the 1937-vintage Martindale Road overpass in St. Catharines is due to be replaced in 2007.
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 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. As part of the Red Hill Valley Parkway currently under construction, the Burlington Street and Centenial Parkway interchanges have been reconstructed, including collector lanes on the south (Niagara-bound) side of the highway.
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 1940 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 later moved in the late 1960s 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. This section has changed little since it was downloaded to Toronto.
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.
Lane configurations from Fort Erie to Toronto
| Section | Travel Lanes |
|---|---|
| Peace Bridge to Mountain Road (Niagara Road 101) | 2 Lanes per Direction 1 additional lane per direction currently under planning |
| Mountain Road to Highway 405 | 2 Lanes per Direction 1 additional lane per direction currently under construction |
| Highway 405 to Niagara Street (Niagara Road 48)/Service Road | 3 Lanes per Direction |
| Niagara Street/Service Road to Highway 406 | 2 Lanes per Direction 1 additional lane per direction currently under construction |
| Highway 406 to Woodward Avenue | 3 Lanes per Direction |
| Woodward Avenue to North Shore Boulevard/Eastport Drive | 4 Lanes per Direction |
| North Shore Boulevard/Eastport Drive to Guelph Line | 3 Lanes per Direction |
| Guelph Line to Trafalgar Road | 3 Lanes per Direction 2 additional mainline or 1 additional mainline and 1 HOV lane per direction currently under planning |
| Trafalgar Road to Highway 403 East | 4 Lanes per Direction |
| Highway 403 East to Highway 427 | 3 Lanes per Direction |
Interchanges from Fort Erie to Toronto
| Municipality | Exit Number | Intersecting Roads |
|---|---|---|
| Fort Erie | 0 | Goderich Street (Niagara Road 3) (Toronto-bound), Central Avenue (Niagara Road 124) (Fort Erie-bound) Photo |
| Fort Erie | 1 | Concession Road (Toronto-bound) Photo |
| Fort Erie | 2 | Thompson Road South (Toronto-bound), Bertie Street/Central Avenue (Fort Erie-bound) Photo |
| Fort Erie | 5 | Gilmore Road (Niagara Road 19) Photo |
| Fort Erie | 7 | Bowen Road (Niagara Road 21) Photo |
| Fort Erie - Niagara Falls Boundary | 12 | Netherby Road (Niagara Road 25) Photo |
| Niagara Falls | 16 | Sodom Road (Niagara Road 116) Photo |
| Niagara Falls | 21 | Lyons Creek Road (Niagara Road 47) Photo |
| Niagara Falls | 27 | McLeod Road (Niagara Road 49) Photo |
| Niagara Falls | 30 | Highway 420/Lundy's Lane (Niagara Road 20)/Dorchester Road Photo |
| Niagara Falls | 32 | Thorold Stone Road (Niagara Road 57) Photo |
| Niagara Falls | 34 | Mountain Road (Niagara Road 101) Photo |
| Niagara-on-the-Lake | 37 | Highway 405 (Niagara-bound only) Photo |
| Niagara-on-the-Lake | 38 | Niagara Stone Road (Niagara Road 55)/Glendale Avenue (Niagara Road 89) Photo |
| St. Catharines | 44 | Niagara Street (Niagara Road 48)/Service Road Photo |
| St. Catharines | 46 | Lake Street Photo |
| St. Catharines | 47 | Ontario Street (Niagara Road 42) |
| St. Catharines | 48 | Martindale Road (Niagara Road 38) (Toronto-bound only) |
| St. Catharines | 49 | Highway 406, North Service Road (Toronto-bound only) |
| St. Catharines | 51 | Seventh Street (Niagara Road 34) |
| Lincoln | 55 | Jordan Road (Niagara Road 26) |
| Lincoln | 57 | Victoria Avenue (Niagara Road 24) |
| Lincoln | 64 | Ontario Street (Niagara Road 18) |
| Grimsby | 68 | Bartlett Avenue (Niagara Road 14) |
| Grimsby | 71 | Christie Street (Niagara Road 12)/Ontario Street/Maple Avenue |
| Grimsby | 74 | Casablanca Boulevard (Niagara Road 10) |
| Hamilton | 78 | Fifty Road (Hamilton Road 50) |
| Hamilton | 83 | Fruitland Road (Hamilton Road 55) |
| Hamilton | 88 | Centennial Parkway (Hamilton Road 20), Red Hill Valley Parkway (under construction) |
| Hamilton | 89 | Burlington Street photo |
| Hamilton | 90 | Woodward Avenue (Niagara-bound only) photo |
| Hamilton | 93 | Eastport Drive (Toronto-bound only) photo |
| Burlington | 97 | North Shore Boulevard, Eastport Drive photo |
| Burlington | 99 | Plains Road/Fairview Street (Toronto-bound only) photo |
| Burlington | 100 | Highway 403/Highway 407 photo |
| Burlington | 101 | Brant Street (Hamilton-bound only) photo |
| Burlington | 102 | Guelph Line (Halton Road 1) photo Construction finished, photo out-of-date. |
| Burlington | 105 | Walkers Line photo |
| Burlington | 107 | Appleby Line photo |
| Burlington - Oakville Boundary | 109 | Burloak Drive |
| Oakville | 110 | Service Road (Hamilton-bound only) |
| Oakville | 111 | Bronte Road (Halton Road 25) |
| Oakville | 113 | Third Line |
| Oakville | 116 | Dorval Drive |
| Oakville | 117 | Kerr Street (Hamilton-bound only) |
| Oakville | 118 | Trafalgar Road (Halton Road 3) photo |
| Oakville | 119 | Royal Windsor Drive (Toronto-bound only) photo |
| Oakville | 123 | Ford Drive, Highway 403 (Toronto-bound only) photo |
| Oakville - Mississauga Boundary | 124 | Winston Churchill Boulevard (Peel Road 19) photo |
| Mississauga | 126 | Erin Mills Parkway/Southdown Road photo |
| Mississauga | 130 | Mississauga Road photo |
| Mississauga | 132 | Hurontario Street photo |
| Mississauga | 134 | Cawthra Road (Peel Road 17) photo |
| Mississauga | 136 | Dixie Road (Peel Road 4) photo |
| Toronto | 138 | Evans Avenue/The West Mall photo |
| Toronto | 139 | Highway 427, Browns Line (Hamilton-bound only) photo |
Former interchanges (on section redesignated in 1998)
- See Gardiner Expressway listing
Trivia
- The only other Ontario freeway to have a unique provincial highway shield with "letters only" 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.