Ontario Highway 69

Ontario Highway 69

King's Highway 69, commonly referred to as Highway 69, is a major north–south highway in the central portion of the Canadian province of Ontario, linking Highway 400 north of Parry Sound with the city of Greater Sudbury at Highway 17.

From its northerly terminus at Sudbury, the highway follows a wide urban arterial route for several kilometres before widening into a full freeway south of Crown Ridge; as of August 2012, this freeway segment extends southerly for approximately 35 km to the Murdock River south of Highway 637. From there, the route narrows to a two-lane highway to its southerly terminus, located three kilometres north of Highway 559 at Nobel. At this terminus, the roadway widens to four lanes and changes its designation to Highway 400. South of this point, various former alignments of Highway 69 remain in use as parts of Highway 400 or as county or local roads. The highway forms part of the Central Ontario route of the Trans-Canada Highway, which continues south along Highway 400.

Highway 69 was first designated in 1936 when the Department of Highways (DHO) assumed the Rama Road between Atherley and Washago. This short route was expanded the following year when the DHO merged with the Department of Northern Development and expanded the King's Highway network north of the Severn River. By the beginning of World War II, the route reached as far north as Britt; a separate segment connected the town of Burwash with Sudbury. However, the rationalization of labour and materials due to the war effort resulted in these two sections remaining separated until the mid-1950s.

In 1976, several reroutings and renumbering took place in the Muskoka area. As a result, the portion of Highway 69 between Brechin and Foot's Bay was renumbered as Highway 169, while the entirety of Highway 103 between Coldwater and Foot's Bay was renumbered as Highway 69. Until the 1980s, the highway extended through Sudbury to Capreol, but was then truncated at a junction with Highway 17's route through Sudbury along what is now Municipal Road 55; this portion was subsequently truncated again in 1995 upon the completion of the Southwest and Southeast Bypasses, onto which Highway 17 was rerouted. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Highway 400 was gradually pushed north to its current terminus by twinning Highway 69, gradually truncating the southern end of the Highway 69 route.