Highway 2A (Ontario)
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Highway 2A is a short controlled-access freeway in Toronto, Ontario that extends from its junction with Kingston Road (formerly part of Highway 2) at the Highland Creek to its junction with Highway 401 (exit 390). It was downloaded to the City of Toronto in 1997 and now forms part of the city's municipal expressway system. The current stub is about 3 km (1.8 miles) long, and there are no intermediate interchanges between its termini, although an on-ramp was recently constructed from Kingston Road, connecting with the 401 off-ramp, metres east of Ellesmere Road and marked 2A.
Construction began in 1938, and this road initially formed part of what would eventually become Highway 401. When the Toronto By-Pass section of Highway 401 was constructed in the 1950s, this section was not included as a new alignment had been chosen so as to pass north of the city, resulting in this short stub freeway which retained the Highway 2A designation. The 2A designation previously continued east on what is now the Durham Region portion of Highway 401, before being renumbered in 1952. Highway 2A was never upgraded to more modern standards, and it still maintains many of the characteristics of a 1940s freeway. The speed limit is 80 km/h (50 mph), instead of the standard 100 km/h (65 mph) of provincial freeways, and it remains unlighted as it is considered a rural freeway.
Highway 2A was intended to be incorporated into the Scarborough Expressway, an easterly continuation of the Gardiner Expressway from downtown Toronto.
After downloading, the City of Toronto did not rename the highway, and as such it has retained the name Highway 2A, though actual signage has been removed apart from the area around the Highway 401 junction. Otherwise it now exists as an un-named Toronto expressway.
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