Highway 135 (Ontario)
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| Highway 135 |
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| Exeter Road Maintained by London, Ontario |
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| Length: | 6.6 km (4.10 mi) | ||||||||||||||||
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| Existed: | 1957 – 1995 | ||||||||||||||||
| West end: |  Hwy 4 |
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| Major junctions: |
Hwy 4 Hwy 401 (Exit 186B) |
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| East end: | Hwy 401 (Exit 186B) |
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| Counties: | Middlesex County | ||||||||||||||||
| Major cities: | London, Lambeth | ||||||||||||||||
| System: | London Municipal Road System (Formerly Ontario King's Highways/Provincial Highway System) |
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Highway 135 is a former provincial highway in London, Ontario, along Exeter Road, which it is better known as. This short provincial highway was an important connector link in the early days of Highway 401. The road's main purpose was to link Highway 401 in London with Highway 2 in Lambeth, at a time when the London-area section of Highway 401 was only completed to the interchange with Highway 4 (Colonel Talbot Road).
The road was first designated as Highway 135 in 1956, and was just 6.6 kilometers in length. While Highway 401 continued west of Highway 135's interchange to Highway 4, this road was suited for drivers that wished to head towards Windsor along the less-popular Highway 3, as Highway 2 was still the main trans-provincial highway at the time, and was quite busy. The usefulness of Highway 135 as a shortcut to Windsor had dwindled dramatically in 1964, when Highway 401 was completed from Tilbury to Highway 4 as a grade-separated Super 2 Freeway, finally linking Windsor to London and Toronto. This rendered travelling along Highway 2 to be obsolete, as Highway 401 was straight, did not have stoplights and towns to slow down travellers (though it did bypass several small towns just a few kilometers away, such as Ridgetown and Glencoe).
The road was still a provincially-significant highway, despite its short length, as it allowed motorists headed to and from Sarnia to travel to Highway 401, by using Highway 135, to Highways 4/2 (multiplexed in London for a while), then Highway 81, to Highway 7 to Sarnia, as Highway 402 was only completed in the Sarnia area. During the 1970s, Highway 402 would be extended in stages towards Strathroy and London. When Highway 402 was completed in 1983, Highway 135's significance was greatly reduced. The road was little more than a shortcut to Highway 4 and the western end of London by the end of the 1980s, and it was formally decommissioned in 1995 by the Ministry of Transportation, thus ending its career as a provincial Kings Highway. Today, the road is simply known as Exeter Road.
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