Thunder Bay Expressway - Route Description

Route Description

During construction in the 1970s, the road had the temporary designation of Highway 131 (which was later recycled for a highway near Barrie, Ontario).

The Thunder Bay Expressway has the unsigned designation of Highway 7250 and forms the southernmost portion of the Terry Fox Courage Highway, which continues east to Nipigon along the Trans-Canada Highway. Between Arthur Street and the Harbour Expressway, it shares a designation with Ontario highway 61. Between the Harbour Expressway and its eastern terminus at Hodder Avenue, it shares a designation with highways 11 and 17, a portion of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The entire route is four lanes and undivided, with an exception between Balsam Street and Hodder Avenue where the route is twinned. Its intersections are all at-grade. Plans to entirely twin the highway and build interchanges were abandoned in the 1990s. The city of Thunder Bay maintains a right of way for these expansion plans in its official plan, and in some places there is evidence of these plans. However, the province of Ontario has recently announced funding to twin the Trans-Canada Highway from Thunder Bay to Nipigon, which has resulted in the first, local highway interchange at the intersection of Hodder Avenue, and highways 11 and 17

The highway runs along the western edge of Thunder Bay south and bisects the northwest portion of Thunder Bay north. The bulk of its traffic is local but it is also an important route in the Trans-Canada highway network.