page_title: Ontario Highway 90
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ontario Highway 90 / History
caption_attribution_description: Ontario Highway 90 immediately west of Barrie
context_page_description: King's Highway 90, commonly referred to as Highway 90, was a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route connected Barrie with the town of Angus and CFB Borden. The highway was designated in 1937. During the early 1960s, the highway was realigned within Barrie in order to have it interchange with Highway 400; originally the route followed Tiffin Street. At the beginning of 1998, the entire highway was transferred to the City of Barrie and Simcoe County; it is now known as Simcoe County Road 90.
context_section_description: Highway 90 was originally assumed by the Department of Highways (DHO), the predecessor to today's Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), during the late 1930s. The primary purpose for the highway was to connect the CFB Borden military base at Angus with the main north–south routes of central Ontario. At that time, these were Highway 27 and Highway 11. On October 6, 1937, the DHO designated the Barrie to Angus Road as King's Highway 90.
  The initially unimproved road was paved shortly after the outbreak of World War II; a contract was awarded to Brennan Paving of Hamilton during the autumn of 1939,
  and work completed by the end of the year.
  Initially, Highway 90 followed Tiffin Street through Barrie, ending just short of the waterfront of Kempenfelt Bay at the intersection of Essa Street (Highway 27) and Bradford Street (Highway 11/27).
  However, during the early 1960s the route was modified so as to provide an interchange with Highway 400. A new interchange was constructed during the late 1950s at what was then known as Elizabeth Street in order to provide better access to downtown Barrie from the freeway. By 1960, Highway 90 had been rerouted northwest along Ferndale Drive and northeast along Elizabeth Street. Though it still ended at Bradford Street, it intersected it 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) to the north.
  By 1961, Elizabeth Street was renamed as Dunlop Street West.
  By 1964, Dunlop Street was extended southwest of Ferndale Drive to merge with Tiffin Street at Miller Drive (the present city limits).
  The highway remained unchanged for over three decades, with the exception of a Connecting Link agreement established between the MTO and the City of Barrie. However, during the late 1990s, the MTO transferred many highways to lower levels of government as a cost-cutting measure. Highway 90 was transferred to Simcoe County on January 1, 1998.
  The Connecting Link through Barrie was also discontinued. Simcoe County has since renamed its portion of the route as Simcoe County Road 90.
caption: Highway 90 approaching Barrie from the west
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