page_title: Ontario Highway 402
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ontario Highway 402 / History
caption_attribution_description: Aerial view of Highway 402 passing through Sarnia. The Blue Water Bridge is visible, and Lake Huron can be seen at the top of the image, still frozen. The uploader or another editor requests that a local copy of this file be kept.This image or media file may be available on the Wikimedia Commons as File:402 through Sarnia.png. While the license of this file may be compliant with the Wikimedia Commons, an editor has requested that the local copy be kept too. This file does not meet CSD F8, and should not be tagged as a Commons duplicate. If you desire to nominate it for deletion, notify the tagging editor.
context_page_description: King's Highway 402, commonly referred to as Highway 402 and historically as the Blue Water Bridge Approach, is a freeway in the Canadian province of Ontario that connects the Blue Water Bridge international crossing near Sarnia to Highway 401 in London. It is one of multiple trade links between Ontario and the Midwestern United States. Its 400-series number denotes a King's Highway with controlled access. It is four lanes for much of its length, though the approach to the Blue Water Bridge is six lanes.
  Although Highway 402 was one of the original 400-series highways when it was designated in 1953, the freeway originally merged into Highway 7 near the present Highway 40 interchange in what was, at the time, Sarnia Township. In 1972, construction began to extend Highway 402 from Sarnia to Highway 401 near London thus creating a bypass to Highway 7; construction took over a decade. The final section of the extension, between Highway 81 and Highway 2, opened to traffic in 1982. The removal of an intersection at Front Street in Sarnia made the entire route a controlled-access highway.
context_section_description: Planning for the route that would become Highway 402 began following the completion of the Blue Water Bridge in 1938. A divided highway was constructed through Sarnia following World War II; it was completed and designated in 1953. The Department of Highways announced its intent to extend the route to Highway 401 in 1957. However, while some preliminary work began in the early 1960s, it would take until 1968 for a preferred route to be announced, and until 1972 for construction to begin. Work was carried out through the remainder of the 1970s, and the freeway was completed and ceremonially opened in late 1982. Since completion as a four-lane route, expansion work has been concentrated on the portion of the freeway in Sarnia approaching the border crossing.
caption: Aerial view of Highway 402 passing through Sarnia; the Blue Water Bridge is visible. Lake Huron, to the upper right, is largely covered in ice.
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