Ontario Highway 85 - History

History

Highway 85 was originally assumed by the Department of Highways (DHO), the predecessor to today's Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), during the mid-1930s. The existing Kitchener–Elmira Road was designated as Highway 85 on March 28, 1934. Initially, the route began at the intersection of Queen Street and King Street in downtown Kitchener, and proceeded north along King Street through Waterloo and St. Jacobs. North of St. Jacobs, the highway followed the same route as modern Waterloo Regional Road 85 to Elmira, ending at Church Street. Church Street itself would become Highway 86 several years later, on August 25, 1937, connecting Elmira and Amberley, and creating a short-lived common terminus between the two highways; Highway 86 was extended to Highway 7 near Guelph on April 13, 1938.

Highway 85 remained unchanged for several decades until the Conestoga Parkway was constructed during the late-1960s and early 1970s. Construction of the new expressway began in February 1965 along King Street; however, construction of the section that is now Highway 85 did not begin until September 1968, when a C$5 million contract for the section between Frederick Street and Bridgeport Road was awarded. Soon thereafter, a second contract for the section between Bridgeport Road and King Street was awarded.

On April 16, 1970, the Highway 85 designation was moved from King Street to the new Conestoga Parkway; King Street was consequently transferred to local jurisdiction. Towards the end of the 1970s, construction began on a northward extension of the Conestoga Parkway from King Street to Northfield Drive; this was completed by 1977. By then, construction was underway on a two lane bypass of St. Jacobs east of the original route, connecting with the Conestoga Parkway at Northfield Drive, then an at-grade intersection. By the end of 1977, this bypass was completed.

In 1975, the eastern section of Highway 86, from Elmira to Guelph, was decommissioned, truncating the eastern terminus of it to the western terminus of Highway 85. To provide a more direct routing between the two highways, a bypass of Elmira was constructed along what is now Listowel Road. By the end of 1979, Highway 86 was rerouted along this bypass, and the northern section of Highway 85 was decommissioned. In 1980 or 1981, Highway 85 was renumbered as Highway 86, eliminating the designation temporarily and creating one continuous highway between Kitchener and Amberley, on the shores of Lake Huron.

On November 30, 1990, the Northfield Drive interchange was fully opened to traffic, eliminating a traffic signal from the northern end of the Conestoga Parkway. The speed limit on the parkway was lowered from 100 km/h (62 mph) to 90 km/h (56 mph) on January 10, 1994 following numerous cross-median collisions.

In 1998, during the mass downloading of provincial highways to lower levels of government, the majority of Highway 86, from the Northfield Drive interchange to Amberley, was decommissioned. The Regional Municipality of Waterloo subsequently designated the section north from Waterloo to Elmira as Regional Road 85. Consequently, the remaining section of Highway 86, which exclusively followed the Conestoga Parkway, was renumbered as Highway 85 during the spring of 2003 to align the numbers and aid navigation.