Ontario Highway 11

Highway 11
Route information
Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Length:	1,780.2 km (1,106.2 mi)
Existed:	1920 – present
Major junctions
South end:	Highway 400 – Barrie
	Highway 12 – Orillia  Highway 60 – Huntsville  Highway 17 – North Bay  Highway 63 – North Bay  Highway 64 – Marten River  Highway 65 – New Liskeard  Highway 66 – Kenogami  Highway 101 – Matheson   Highway 17 / Highway 61 – Thunder Bay  Highway 71 – Fort Frances
West end:	MN 72 – Baudette, MN
Location
Divisions:	Simcoe County, Muskoka, Parry Sound District, Nipissing District, Timiskaming District, Cochrane District, Thunder Bay District, Rainy River District
Major cities:	Barrie, Orillia, North Bay, Temiskaming Shores, Thunder Bay
Towns:	Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, Burk's Falls, South River, Powassan, Temagami, Englehart, Matheson, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Hearst, Longlac, Geraldton, Nipigon, Fort Frances, Rainy River
Highway system
Ontario provincial highways List 400-series Former ←  Highway 10   Highway 12  →

King's Highway 11, commonly referred to as Highway 11, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. At 1,780.2 kilometres (1,106.2 mi), it is the second longest highway in the province, following Highway 17. Highway 11 begins at Highway 400 in Barrie, and arches through northern Ontario to the Ontario–Minnesota border at Rainy River via Thunder Bay; the road continues as Minnesota State Highway 72 across the Baudette-Rainy River International Bridge.

North and west of North Bay, Highway 11 forms part of the Trans-Canada Highway. The highway is also part of MOM's Way between Thunder Bay and Rainy River.

History

1927 postcard of the Ferguson Highway

Highway 11 was originally planned as a trunk road to connect the communities of Southern Ontario to those of Northern Ontario, as a continuous route from Toronto to North Bay. In 1919, Premier of Ontario Ernest Charles Drury created the Department of Public Highways, though much of the responsibility for establishing the route he left to minister of the new cabinet position, Frank Campbell Biggs. By linking together several previously built roads such as Yonge Street, Penetanguishene Road, Middle Crossroad and the Muskoka Road, all early colonization roads in this region, a continuous route was created between Toronto and North Bay; however, the new department's jurisdiction did not extend north of the Severn River. North of the Severn River, the roadway was maintained by the Department of Northern Development.

Further expansion was planned with a new highway from North Bay to Cochrane. Construction began in 1925, including reconstruction of portions of the old Muskoka Road from Severn Bridge which was officially opened on July 2, 1927. When it was opened, it was named the Ferguson Highway, in honour of Premier George Howard Ferguson (Drury's successor). Roads in northern Ontario later came under the Ministry of Transportation and became provincial highways.

Highway 11 facing north towards Bracebridge

Over the years, Highway 11 grew to stretch from downtown Toronto all the way to the Minnesota border. Highway 11 became synonymous with Yonge Street, the name of the street in Toronto which formed its southernmost segment. It is from this that Yonge Street gained a disputed reputation as the "longest street in the world".

In 1997, the care of the highway portion south of Barrie, including Yonge Street, was transferred by the provincial government to various regional governments as part of significant cost reductions by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. This practice is called downloading, in that the financial burden will fall to a lower tier government, in the premise of reducing taxes. Along with the name Yonge Street, the section in York Region is now York Regional Road 1, the section in Simcoe County is now mostly Simcoe County 4. Within the city of Toronto, which does not have a regional road numbering system, it is now known simply as Yonge Street. Highway 11 consequently assumed the 1.1-kilometre highway stub formerly known as Highway 400A, and now ends at the interchange with Highway 400 just north of Barrie's city limits.

In 2003, a major bridge failure at the Sgt. Aubrey Cosens VC Memorial Bridge at the Montreal River in Latchford caused a complete closure and significant detour.

Major reconstruction of Highway 11 south of North Bay began in 2003, upgrading the route from a two-lane rural highway to a four-lane road. In some sections the route was being built as an expressway with right-in/right-out ramps or at-grade intersections, while in others it is being built as a full 400-Series freeway. Through all of the freeway sections the speed limit is 100 km/h, even in some areas with at grade intersections, such as between North Bay and Powassan. Through some of the southern sections which were upgraded to a lower standard expressway with frequent right in right out movements and commercial entrances, the limit is 90 km/h, even though there are no at grade crossroads.

Highway 11 crosses the 45th parallel (halfway between the equator and north pole) 600 metres north of the bridge carrying Highway 118 at interchange 182, just outside of Bracebridge.

Due to a steep incline as it descends Thibeault Hill into North Bay, the southbound Algonquin Avenue segment of Highway 11 features the only runaway truck ramp on Ontario's highway system. The Ministry of Transportation is currently undertaking a study of potential highway improvements in the North Bay area, which may include a new westerly realignment of this segment to bypass the hill.

On August 9, 2012, construction of the fully divided four lane freeway between Huntsville and North Bay was completed. However, as the section south of Huntsville is still a RIRO expressway rather than a full freeway, the highway is not currently slated to be renumbered as Highway 411.

Route description

The highway passes through remote northern parts of the province. The stretch of highway between Hearst and Longlac, over 200km, is totally uninhabited, and it is recommended that travelers stop to refuel before crossing this region.

Business routes

Highway 11B is the designation for business routes of Highway 11, nine of which have existed over the years. Two continue to exist today, while the remaining seven have been decommissioned. With the exception of the short spur route into Atikokan, all were at one time the primary route of Highway 11 through the communities they served, and were redesignated as 11B after a newer bypass alignment was constructed.

Highway 11B entering Cobalt

All sections of Highway 11B have now been decommissioned by the province with the exception of the Atikokan route and the southernmost section of the former Tri-Town route between Cobalt and Highway 11.

In 1967, a section of the Cobalt route of Highway 11B collapsed into an abandoned mine, cutting off the town of Cobalt.

• Holland Landing
• Orillia
• Gravenhurst
• Huntsville
• Powassan
• North Bay
• Cobalt/Temiskaming Shores
• Thunder Bay
• Atikokan

Future

Highway 11 facing south from Highway 12 in Orillia

Highway 11 between Barrie and Gravenhurst is currently a right-in/right-out (RIRO) expressway (local access permitted, turnarounds via special interchanges), except for a section around Orillia which is a full freeway. Another freeway section does exist in Barrie with the freeway segment from the southern terminus ending at Penetanguishene Road (Simcoe Road 93). The MTO is currently planning on either converting the existing RIRO expressway to a full six-lane freeway, or bypassing it with an entirely new alignment. An environmental and fiscal study concluded that the improvements from Barrie to Gravenhurst will involve the existing route being widened with the exception of a portion south of Gravenhurst that may potentially be constructed to the east of the current road.

Major intersections

The following table lists the major junctions along Highway 11, as noted by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. 

Division	Location	km	Mile	Exit	Destinations	Notes
Simcoe	Oro-Medonte	0.0	0.0		Highway 400A south – Barrie, Toronto County Road 93 north (Penetanguishene Road) – Midland	Continuation of Ontario Highway 400 kilometre markers
		5.7	3.5		Oro-Medonte Line 4
		15.8	9.8		County Road 20 (Oro-Medonte Line 11)
	Orillia	23.6	14.7	129	Memorial Avenue	Northbound exit only; southbound exit and northbound entrance via Oro-Medonte Line 15
		25.3	15.7	131	Highway 12 south (Old Barrie Road) – Whitby
		27.7	17.2	133	Highway 12 north (Coldwater Road) – Coldwater, Midland
		29.8	18.5	135	County Road 18 (West Street / Burnside Line)
		31.4	19.5		Laclie Street	Northbound entrance and southbound exit
	Severn	38.9	24.2		Bayou Road / New Brailey Line
		46.7	29.0		County Road 169 south
		49.0	30.4		Severn River bridge
Muskoka	Gravenhurst
		64.9	40.3	169	District Road 169 west (Muskoka Road) – Bala, Parry Sound	Dead Man's Curve; no northbound entrance
		69.9	43.4	175	District Road 41 west (Bethune Road) District Road 6 east (Doe Lake Road)
		76.8	47.7	182	Highway 118 east – Haliburton District Road 118 west – Bracebridge, Port Carling
	Bracebridge
		78.8	49.0	184	District Road 37 (Fredrick Street / Cedar Lane)
		83.6	51.9	189	District Road 42 (Taylor Road)
		87.5	54.4	193	District Road 117 east – Dorset
	Huntsville	101.8	63.3	207	Highway 141 west – Parry Sound, Utterson District Road 10 – Port Sydney
		114.3	71.0	219	District Road 3 (Aspdin Road / Main Street)	Huntsville Bypass
		116.6	72.5	221	District Road 2 (West Road / Ravenscliffe Road)
		118.3	73.5	223	Highway 60 east – Ottawa – Algonquin Provincial Park
		121.5	75.5	226	District Road 3
		126.3	78.5	235	Highway 592 north (Novar Road) – Emsdale	Emsdale Bypass
Parry Sound	Emsdale	135.2	84.0	244	Fern Glen Road west / Scotia Road east
		139.4	86.6	248	Highway 518 west – Parry Sound
		141.1	87.7	252	Doe Lake Road west / Three Mile Lake Road east
	Burk's Falls	148.3	92.1	257	Highway 520 (Ontario Street) – Magnetawan	Burk's Falls Bypass
		151.9	94.4	261	Ontario Street
	Sundridge	167.6	104.1	276	Highway 124 – Parry Sound, South River	Sundridge / South River Bypass
	South River	174.4	108.4	282	Mountain Road and Tower Road
		179.9	111.8	289	Highway 124 – Sundridge
	Laurier	184.9	114.9	294	Goreville Road / Summit Road
	Trout Creek	192.3	119.5	301	Highway 522 west – Commanda	Trout Creek Bypass
		197.1	122.5	306	Highway 522B
	Powassan	207.6	129.0	316	Highway 534 west – Nipissing, Restoule
	Callander	220.6	137.1	329	Highway 654 (Lake Nosbonsing Road) – Nipissing	To  Highway 94 north – Corbeil
Nipissing	North Bay	229.7	142.7	338	Lakeshore Drive	Formerly Highway 11B
		235.4	146.3	344	Highway 17 east – Ottawa	Beginning of Highway 17 concurrency
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

Route map

Western half of King's Highway 11		Eastern half of King's Highway 11

Images

• 

  Highway 11 just north of North Bay. On the left the Brake Check area can be seen before trucks head into North Bay.

• 

  New 4-lane divided highway at North Waseosa Lake Road/Rockhaven Road interchange near Melissa.

• 

  Between Cochrane and Longlac, Highway 11 is straight and flat with little development.

• 

  Winter can pose serious driving hazards along Hwy 11 (near Temagami).

• 

  New 4-lane divided Hwy 11 (near Katrine).

See also

• Webers, a fast-food restaurant located alongside the highway, near Orillia

External links

• Ontario Plaques – Ferguson Highway
• Ontario Highway 11 Homepage – A Virtual Community-by-Community Trip Along the World's Longest Street
• Highway 11 @ AsphaltPlanet.ca