King's Highway 403 (pronounced "four-oh-three"), or simply Highway 403, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that travels between Woodstock and Mississauga, west of Toronto, branching off from and reuniting with Highway 401 at both ends and travelling south of it through Hamilton (where it is also known as the Chedoke Expressway) and Mississauga. It runs concurrently with the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) for from Burlington to Oakville. The "Highway 403" designation was first applied in 1963 to a short stub of freeway branching off the QEW at Burlington, and the entire route was completed on August 15, 1997, when the section from Brantford to the then-still independent Town of Ancaster was opened to traffic. The portion of Highway 403 between Woodstock and Burlington was formally dedicated as the Alexander Graham Bell Parkway on April 27, 2016, in honour of Alexander Graham Bell.
Highway 403 begins by diverging from Highway 401 near Woodstock. The majority of Highway 403 is surrounded by suburban land use, except west of Hamilton, where it passes through agricultural land; Brantford is the only urban area through this section. In Hamilton, Highway 403 descends the Niagara Escarpment, then wraps around the northern side of Hamilton Harbour to encounter the QEW at the Freeman Interchange. From there, co-signed with the QEW, it travels straight through Burlington and Oakville; at the Ford Motor Assembly Plant, Highway 403 departs from the QEW to the north at the Mississauga–Oakville boundary. The freeway then crosses through the centre of Mississauga in an east–west direction while travelling alongside a hydro corridor, serving its city centre. Turning north, Highway 403 splits up into a collector-express system; while the express lanes defaulting to Highway 401 east of that interchange, the collector lanes thereafter continue north as Highway 410 to Brampton.
The speed limit is throughout the majority of its length, with the exceptions being between Oak Park Road and Garden Avenue in Brantford, between Alberton Road and Aberdeen Avenue in Hamilton, and between Highway 6 and the Freeman Interchange in Burlington, where the speed limit is , and between Aberdeen Avenue and Highway 6, where the speed limit is . The route is patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO).
Route description
Woodstock to Burlington
Highway 403 begins at a half-Y-junction with Highway 401 on the outskirts of Woodstock. The eastbound lanes split from eastbound Highway 401, whereas the westbound lanes merge into westbound Highway 401. It travels along the back lot lines of the second concession south of former Highway 2. This first section of the highway is also the least travelled portion, with approximately 20,900 vehicles using it on an average day in 2016. The highway passes beneath Oxford County Road 55 (formerly Highway 53) and curves southeast. After crossing into the third concession, it curves back to the east. The highway travels straight for several kilometres, meeting with the southern leg of Highway 24, which travels south to Simcoe.
The highway crosses the Grand River to the south of Paris, then passes over former Highway 2 as it enters Brantford. As it passes through Brantford, the highway angles southeast and passes beneath the northern leg of Highway 24 and then the Wayne Gretzky Parkway. At Garden Avenue, the highway exits the eastern city limits and curves northeast shortly thereafter. It travels between Jerseyville Road and former Highway 2 to Ancaster, jogging to avoid cutting through Dunmark Lake. As the freeway enters Ancaster, it once again crosses former Highway 2 and dips through the southern side of the town.
East of Ancaster, the freeway passes through a short greenbelt, with Hamilton Golf and Country Club lying to the north. A divided segment of Highway 6 meets the freeway and continues concurrently with it through Hamilton; to the south, Highway 6 travels to Hamilton International Airport, Caledonia, and Jarvis at Highway 3. Continuing east, Highway 403 and Highway 6 curve north into Hamilton and meet the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway before abruptly turning to the east and descending the Niagara Escarpment. Scenic views of Hamilton, its harbour, port and Lower Princess Falls are along this steep descent. At the bottom of the escarpment, the highway travels through a narrow, heavily developed corridor alongside former Highway 8. It passes beneath multiple bridges in a depressed trench, eventually curving north at a sharp corner and passing beneath more bridges. The highway returns to ground level alongside the Chedoke Creek, a now-channelized river from which the freeway may take its name.
As the freeways continue north, they cross an isthmus between Hamilton Harbour and Cootes Paradise alongside several roads which it has served to replace. They circle around the northern shore of Hamilton Harbour and return to a northeast–southwest orientation. The concurrency with Highway 6 ends at an interchange where Highway 403 continues east and Highway 6 departs north towards Guelph. At this interchange, Highway 403 enters the Greater Toronto Area (Halton Region). After entering the GTA, the freeway continues straight for several kilometres, passing by the Burlington Transmission Station until it approaches the Freeman Interchange where the opposing carriageways split apart to accommodate the left-hand exit/entry of the flyover ramps marking the western terminus of Highway 407, then it merges with Queen Elizabeth Way.
Burlington to Mississauga
Highway 403 travels concurrently with the QEW for between the Freeman Interchange and Oakville, a straight section surrounded almost entirely by commercial units and warehouses. At the Ford Assembly Plant near the Halton–Peel regional boundary (and the Oakville–Mississauga city limits), Highway 403 branches off from the QEW as it crosses Ford Drive (Halton Regional Road 13), with the eastbound lanes diving under the QEW and Upper Middle Road, before reuniting with the westbound carriageway. Highway 403 continues northwest, while the QEW continues east to Toronto. After running north–south for along the western edge of Mississauga, Highway 403 meets with Highway 407 again at a combination interchange where the two freeways curve ninety degrees to avoid crossing each other. Approaching this junction Highway 403 westbound traffic defaults onto Highway 407, so motorists have to continue on Highway 403 via a semi-directional flyover that arcs from the west to the south. This north–south segment of Highway 403 was originally planned as a temporary routing to be bypassed by a new direct Oakville-Burlington link; but in 1995 this routing became permanently part of Highway 403 when the proposed link instead became part of Highway 407.
Highway 407 continues to the north and west to Highway 401, while Highway 403 turns east to follow alongside a hydro corridor through the centre of Mississauga. A portion of the Mississauga Transitway express bus service utilizes the freeway's right shoulders between Erin Mills Parkway (Peel Regional Road 1) and Mavis Road (Peel Regional Road 18). Between Highway 407 and Highway 401, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are present in the left shoulder lanes for vehicles with at least one passenger. Sandwiched between residential subdivisions on both sides, the freeway soon thereafter crosses the Credit River. On the other side of the river, between the interchanges with Mavis Road and Hurontario Street (formerly Highway 10), Highway 403 skirts to the north of downtown Mississauga, as well as the Square One Shopping Centre.
After a split with Eastgate Parkway where exiting drivers can access Eglinton Avenue (or Cawthra Road) at a signalized intersection, Highway 403 diverges from a hydro corridor as it abruptly curves to the north. As the curve straightens and approaches the Parlo interchange with Eglinton Avenue, Cawthra Road's northbound lane converges with the onramps from Eglinton to form the eastbound collector lanes, soon joined by the eastbound express-to-collector transfer that also marks the start of another HOV lane. For the westbound collector-express system of Highway 403, after an offramp to Eglinton Avenue, there is collector-to-express transfer; thereafter, the collector lanes (including the onramps from Eglinton) split off and continues south as Cawthra Road, with a signalized intersection for Eastgate Parkway or Highway 403 westbound. The portion of Highway 403 between Hurontario Street and Eglinton Avenue is the busiest along the route, with approximately 180,000 vehicles travelling it on an average day in 2016.
After crossing Matheson Boulevard, the freeway's central HOV lanes terminate and merge with the express lanes. The freeway then approaches a massive, sprawling interchange; while the express lanes curving east and defaulting to Highway 401 express lanes east of that junction, the collector lanes (including its HOV lane) pass under several sets of flyovers and thereafter continue north as Highway 410 to Brampton. The freeway's collector lanes also have connecting ramps to both directions of the Highway 401 collector lanes.
History
Though one of the first divided highways conceived for Ontario, Highway 403 is one of the most recently completed freeways in the province; the multiple segments of the route did not become continuous until 2002. Planning for the route was underway by 1958, as a portion of QEW was realigned from its original alignment of Middle Road to the Freeman Diversion which also included three-legged junction for the future Highway 403. Sections of Highway 403 through Hamilton opened between December 1963 and September 1969, with that stretch known as the Chedoke Expressway. An isolated section known as the Brantford Bypass was opened in October 1966, and would remain unconnected to other freeways for over 20 years; the Brantford Bypass also included a non-freeway four-lane undivided road (also known as Garden Avenue) which was provincially-maintained until 1997. Plans for a third segment through Mississauga (originally known as the Hamilton Expressway) were contemplated throughout the 1960s, but were not finalized until late 1977, after which construction began. Portions opened at both ends in 1980 and 1981, while the central gap, crossing the Credit River, was completed in December 1982.
Construction to bridge the gaps in Highway 403 between Ancaster and Woodstock was carried out over three major phases. The first phase was a short extension of the Brantford Bypass beginning in 1975, however motorists would have to continue on Highway 2/Highway 53 to reach Highway 401. Later, work began to connect that extension with Highway 401 near Woodstock, which opened in 1988. The non-freeway section of the Brantford Bypass (Garden Avenue) and Colborne Street/Wilson Street (Highway 2/53) served as the connector between the Woodstock-Brantford and Ancaster-Hamilton segments of Highway 403, until the last phase of Highway 403 between Ancaster and Brantford finally opened in 1997. The final discontinuity, between Burlington and Oakville, was signed as a concurrency with the QEW in 2002. Originally, Highway 403 was to be extended westward from Oakville to connect directly with the Burlington-Brantford segment, bypassing the north–south routing of Highway 403 along the Mississauga-Oakville boundary that would then be re-designated as part of the proposed Highway 407. Budget shortfalls in 1995 resulted in a change of plans, so Highway 403 retained the existing north–south segment in Oakville, while the vacant corridor previously intended for Highway 403 from Oakville to Burlington has since been occupied by the westmost extension of Highway 407 ETR that opened in 2001.