Highway 20 (Ontario)
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Ontario Provincial Highway 20 is a provincially maintained highway in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. Presently, it is just a 1.9 km (1.2 mile) part of Niagara Road 20 between Highway 58 and Niagara Road 70 in Thorold.
First opened in 1930, at its peak Highway 20 stretched 68 km (42 miles) from downtown Niagara Falls to a junction with Queen Elizabeth Way in east Hamilton. On January 1, 1998, the province downloaded most of the highway onto municipalities of Hamilton and Niagara. Another downloading further shortened Highway 20 when Highway 420 was completed through downtown Niagara Falls.
It should be noted that even though only 1.9 kilometres of the highway are provincially maintained, the rest of the highway is still maintained to a high standard by the two regions, corresponding to the relatively high volumes of traffic it receives. The Niagara Road 20 and Hamilton Road 20 continue to play an important role in the lives of communities that grew on Highway 20, such as Fonthill and Smithville.
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation reportedly kept a short section of Highway 20 because it may have been included in a planned westward extension of Highway 420 to reach Highway 406. The extension, however, was finalized to connect to Highway 58 rather than directly to Highway 406[1], and therefore the future of this small section of highway is in doubt.
