page_title: Ontario Highway 400
section_title: Since 2000
hierarchical_section_title: Ontario Highway 400 / History / Since 2000
caption_attribution_description: English: Ontario Highway 400 widening work in King Township in July 2020
context_page_description: King's Highway 400, commonly referred to as Highway 400, historically as the Toronto–Barrie Highway, and colloquially as the 400, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking the city of Toronto in the urban and agricultural south of the province with the scenic and sparsely populated central and northern regions. The portion of the highway between Toronto and Lake Simcoe roughly traces the route of the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, a historic trail between the Lower and Upper Great Lakes. North of Highway 12, in combination with Highway 69, it forms a branch of the Trans-Canada Highway, the Georgian Bay Route, and is part of the highest-capacity route from southern Ontario to the Canadian West, via a connection with the mainline of the TCH in Sudbury. The highway also serves as the primary route from Toronto to southern Georgian Bay and Muskoka, areas collectively known as cottage country. The highway is patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police and has a speed limit of 100 km/h, except for the section south of the 401, where the speed limit is 80 km/h.
context_section_description: In the early 2000s, the junctions with Rutherford Road and Major Mackenzie Drive in Vaughan 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.
  On October 27, 2010, one lane in either direction on the Nobel Bypass opened to traffic. The new four-lane bypass, which travels as far north as Highway 559, was fully opened in November. The former route of Highway 69 through the town was renamed as Nobel Drive and was reduced in width from four to two lanes, with a recreational trail constructed alongside the road. Some businesses in Nobel were affected after the opening of the new highway 400 realignment and had to be closed down.
  On February 27, 2014, a major snowsquall affected Highway 400 in Innisfil with heavy wind gusts and near-zero visibility. A total of 96 vehicles were involved in a major collision that ensued near Innisfil Beach Road. Although no injuries were reported, the highway was closed for a day and buses were shuttled in to warm stranded motorists. 
  On June 28, 2005, it was officially confirmed that Highway 69 would be twinned and bypassed north to Highway 17 in Sudbury. This announcement was accompanied by a time line with the completion date set for 2017; in March 2015, the Ministry of Transportation acknowledged that the original completion date will not be met, and announced that its current goal is to have the project completed in the 2020s. However, work was already underway in 2003 to expand Highway 69 south of Sudbury to four lanes. As work is completed at the southern end near Nobel, the Highway 400 designation is being extended north.
  Construction began on the segment from Sudbury southwards to Estaire in 2005, while route planning studies were completed for the Estaire to Parry Sound segment. Portions of the route will be opened to traffic in segments as contracts are fulfilled; the segment between Sudbury and Estaire opened on November 12, 2009, while the Nobel bypass from Parry Sound to Highway 559 opened October 26, 2010. As the Sudbury segment of the Highway 69 freeway is discontinuous with Highway 400, it will not be renumbered until the twinning of the intervening section is completed.
  As one of the oldest 400-series freeways, several vintage overpasses have been demolished in recent years to accommodate the future expansion of Highway 400 to ten lanes in the section from Vaughan to Barrie. Sixteen of these historic structures, sub-standard by today's freeway requirements, remained as of summer 2009, with all slated for replacement in the near future. In order to preserve some of this heritage the Ministry of Transportation created an 1800mm x 1625mm reusable urethane mould of the provincial coat-of-arms from the 5th Line overpass located south of Bradford, which will be used to decorate the replacement structures.
  Construction began north of Barrie in April 2013 to replace the overpass at the Crown Hill junction with Highway 11. The new structure, designed to accommodate future highway expansion, was completed in October 2015. The original overpass, built during the 1950s, was demolished during an overnight closure on December 13, 2015. The overall cost of this project was C$8.5 million.
caption: Widening work in King Township in July 2020
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