Reroutings
The road originally travelled along what is now Essex County Road 2 (Tecumseh Road), where it led straight into Windsor along today's Tecumseh Road.
In 1961, the two-lane limited-access Pike Creek Bypass was created (and would eventually link up with the E.C. Row Expressway once it was built), that allowed traffic to avoid travelling down the busy County Road 2 (Tecumseh Road) between Puce and Tecumseh. Highway 39 was then re-routed along the new Pike Creek Bypass, deleting the other roads as provincial highways.
The new routing of the road led it along its old path towards Puce, but then diverged along the Pike Creek Bypass towards Manning Road (Essex CR 19). It then turned right (north) for around 2 km, where it met up with Tecumseh Road (CR 2, its old alignment) in Tecumseh. It then turned left and travelled along Tecumseh Road, to its terminus with Highway 3B (Oullette Avenue).
In 1970, Highway 2 was re-aligned along its path, eliminating Highway 39 from the system. Highway 2 would be decommissioned in 1998, however, and redesignated as Essex County Road 22.
Aside from a brief segment east from Manning Road for about 1 km, the road is entirely 2-lanes and without store and house accesses (it was built as a two-lane expressway and only has access at intersections, with no adjacent properties or driveways).
Due to the huge housing boom in western Lakeshore, the road has become extremely congested, and many people have desired the road be widened to four lanes, or even a divided highway or freeway, but due to the narrow right of way, the road is being widened to four lanes as a new Super-Arterial road or even a Super 4, with the possibility of an interchange at Manning Road.
Read more about this topic: Ontario Highway 39