Ontario Highway 7

Highway 7
Location of Highway 7 in Southern Ontario.      Current route      Former route
Route information
Maintained by Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Length	535.7 km[1] (332.9 mi)
Existed	1920–present
Western segment
Length	154.1 km (95.8 mi)
West end	Highway 4 – Elginfield
Major intersections	Highway 23  Highway 8 – Kitchener  Highway 6 – Guelph
East end	Halton–Peel boundary (near Norval)
Eastern segment
Length	381.6 km (237.1 mi)
West end	Regional Road 48 (Donald Cousens Parkway) - Markham
Major intersections	Highway 412 – Whitby  Highway 7A – Port Perry  Highway 12 – Sunderland  Highway 35 – Lindsay  Highway 115 – Peterborough  Highway 28 – Peterborough  Highway 62 - Madoc  Highway 37 – Actinolite  Highway 41 – Kaladar  Highway 15 – Carleton Place
East end	Highway 417 – Ottawa
Location
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Divisions	Middlesex, Oxford County, Halton, York, Durham, Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough, Hastings, Lennox and Addington, Frontenac, Lanark
Major cities	Stratford, Kitchener–Waterloo, Guelph, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham, Pickering, Peterborough, Ottawa
Towns	Halton Hills (Acton, Georgetown, Norval), Richmond Hill, Whitby, Lindsay, Perth, Carleton Place
Highway system
Ontario provincial highways Current Former 400-series
← Highway 6 → Highway 7A

King's Highway 7, commonly referred to as Highway 7 and historically as the Northern Highway, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. At its peak, Highway 7 measured 716 km (445 mi) in length, stretching from Highway 40 east of Sarnia in Southwestern Ontario to Highway 17 west of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario. However, due in part to the construction of Highways 402 and 407, the province transferred the sections of Highway 7 west of London and through the Greater Toronto Area to county and regional jurisdiction. The highway is now 535.7 km (332.9 mi) long; the western segment begins at Highway 4 north of London and extends 154.1 km (95.8 mi) to Georgetown, while the eastern segment begins at Donald Cousens Parkway in Markham and extends 381.6 km (237.1 mi) to Highway 417 in Ottawa.

Highway 7 was first designated in 1920 between Sarnia and Guelph and extended to Brampton the following year. Between 1927 and 1932, the highway was more than doubled in length as it was gradually extended eastward to Perth, where Highway 15 continued to Ottawa via Carleton Place. In the early 1960s, that section of Highway 15 was renumbered as Highway 7. In that same decade, the Conestoga Parkway through Kitchener and the Peterborough Bypass were constructed. During the 1970s and 1980s, many sections of Highway 7 were widened from the initial two lane cross-section to four or six lanes. Within central York Region, where it would share a narrow corridor with the then-future Highway 407, the route was upgraded to a limited-access arterial highway in preparation for the construction of the latter route.

Soon thereafter, that new tollway would act as justification for transferring the section of Highway 7 through the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to regional governments. The sections became Peel Regional Road 107 Bovaird Drive West to Highway 410 and Queen Street East from east of 410 respectively) and York Regional Road 7. In the west, the construction of Highway 402 between Sarnia and London provided an uninterrupted alternative to Highway 7, resulting in the transfer of the section west of Highway 4. A third transfer took place in Peterborough, briefly separating the route into three discontinuous segments, but has since been rectified by renumbering a section of Highway 7A. From 2007 to 2012, the section of Highway 7 between Carleton Place and Ottawa has been widened to a divided freeway. In addition, work is underway to extend the Conestoga Parkway to New Hamburg as well as to build a new freeway between Kitchener and Guelph.