page_title: Ontario Highway 6
section_title: Downloading and changes since
hierarchical_section_title: Ontario Highway 6 / History / Downloading and changes since
caption_attribution_description: Ontario Highway 6 descending the Niagara Escarpment through the Clappison Cut. Burlington and Hamilton are visible in the middle and background, respectively.
context_page_description: King's Highway 6, commonly referred to as Highway 6, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It crosses a distance of 480 km between Port Dover, on the northern shore of Lake Erie, and Espanola, on the northern shore of Lake Huron, before ending at the Trans-Canada Highway in McKerrow.
  Highway 6 was one of several routes established when Ontario first introduced a highway network on February 26, 1920, following several pioneer wagon trails. The original designation, not numbered until 1925, connected Port Dover with Owen Sound via Hamilton and Guelph. When the Department of Highways took over the Department of Northern Development in 1937, Highway 6 was extended north through the Bruce Peninsula to Tobermory. In 1980, the entire length of Highway 68 on Manitoulin Island and north to Highway 17 became a northern extension of Highway 6. Small modifications were made to the route of Highway 6 in 1997, but it was largely untouched by provincial downloading.
  Highway 6 is one of two highways in Ontario broken into two segments by a ferry. The Chi-Cheemaun ferry serves automobile traffic, connecting Tobermory with South Baymouth between May and October.
context_section_description: On April 1, 1997, Highway 6 was decommissioned south of Hepworth to Highway 21. The entire length of Highway 70 was subsequently renumbered Highway 6 to rectify the discontinuity. On the same day, the section between the southern terminus at former Highway 24 to the west side of the Lynn River. These reduced the length of Highway 6 from 488.5 kilometres (303.5 mi) to 472.4 kilometres (293.5 mi).
  A new 9.7-kilometre-long (6.0 mi) segment of Highway 6 was opened to the southwest of John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in 2004. This building of this route had been planned since the construction of the Caledonia Bypass in 1983. However, concrete plans were not announced until January 1993. However, it had already drawn criticism due to an old-growth forest located in the path of the route. The planned highway would cost a projected $100 million. However, these plans never came to fruition, and by 1997 a new, shorter route was in the planning stages. Construction of the $33 million route was announced on May 26, 2000 by Transportation Minister David Turnbull, and began in July 2003.
  The new route was opened on November 26, 2004. The section through Hamilton at the time followed Upper James Street through the Claremont Access onto the one-way pairings of Wellington Street and Victoria Avenue then Main Street and King Street. It turned north on Dundurn Street and crossed Cootes Paradise via York Boulevard before turning onto Plains Road and meeting the current route at the now-closed intersection. The responsibility for this routing was subsequently transferred to the City of Hamilton.
  In early 2002, it was announced that the section of Highway 6 north of Hamilton, from Highway 403 north to beyond Highway 5, would be widened to a five lane freeway. This work began in 2006, widening and dividing the highway up the Clappison Cut. The York Road interchange opened on May 23, 2009, following completion of this work. The Plains Road/Northcliffe Avenue intersection was closed the night before and a new section of Plains Road opened on the same day as the interchange. Highway 6 now features an additional northbound truck-climbing lane as a result of this $34 million project.
caption: Highway 6 descends the Niagara Escarpment towards Burlington through the Clappison Cut as a five lane freeway
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