Highway 8 (Ontario)

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Highway 8
Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation
Length:	138.5 km[1] (86.1 mi)
Formed:	1920
West end:	Hwy 21 in Goderich
Major junctions:	Hwy 7 in Stratford Hwy 401 in Kitchener
East end:	Hwy 5 near Dundas
Ontario provincial highways < Hwy 7 Hwy 9 > 400-series - County

Highway 8 is a King's Highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its total length is 138.5 km.

[edit] Route

[edit] Conestoga Parkway

Highway 8 begins at its western terminus in downtown Goderich, at the junction with Highway 21. It travels eastward as a normal city road, running through Stratford (where it begins overlapping with Highway 7). At New Hamburg, the combined Highway 7/8 becomes a controlled-access freeway and continues into Kitchener (where the 7/8 freeway is known as the Conestoga Parkway).

[edit] Freeport Diversion

As the Conestoga Parkway runs through Kitchener, Highways 7 and 8 split off from one another, with Highway 8 turning southeastward via an interchange. The interchange between Highway 8 and the Conestoga Parkway was opened in 1970. Mainline traffic on Highway 8 heading northwest could continue under the Conestoga, where the route defaults to King Street, to enter downtown Kitchener. The Conestoga east/north of this junction serves as a bypass of King Street.

King Street north of the half-clo intersection with the Conestoga Parkway and Highway 8, looking south in Kitchener. King Street traffic, however, has no direct access to the Conestoga.

Highway 8 continues along as four-lane freeway, which is also known as the Freeport Diversion or King Street Bypass, until it ended at an at-grade Y-junction with King Street East. Traffic from the Freeport Diversion was treated as the mainline traffic at this interchange. The Highway 8 designation continues along King Street East to Highway 401.

A direct freeway connection between Highway 401 and the Freeport Diversion was made possible when a new bypass (secretly designated as Highway 7187, though signed as Highway 8) was opened in 1987; it featured a Y-junction with Highway 401 to serve traffic east of that junction. The cloverleaf interchange with the existing Highway 8 had several ramps realigned, and it continues to serve 401 traffic west of that junction.

[edit] Recent Improvements

Highway 8 with the interchange with the Conestoga Parkway seen in the distance. The new concrete median barrier and retaining wall on the right side were part of a multiyear project to improve the capacity of the junction. Photographed from the Franklin Street overpass.

In 2004, extensive improvements were completed around the former obsolete and bottlenecked "half-cloverleaf" interchange of the Conestoga and Highway 8. This included a new flyover semi-directional ramp from Conestoga westbound to Highway 8 eastbound, while the ramp in the opposite direction was realigned to allow it to carry two lanes of traffic at a higher speed.

In 2002-2004 Highway 8 freeway was widened from four to eight lanes from the interchange to just east of Franklin Street, with necessitated moving one retaining wall and a new overpass with Franklin Street. Since 2006, work has been underway to widen the freeway to eight lanes, including the Fairway Road interchange.

[edit] Exits

Freeport Diversion and King Street Bypass

Destinations	Notes
King Street - Downtown Kitchener	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Hwy 7 west / Hwy 8 west – Stratford	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Hwy 7 east to Hwy 85 – Guelph, Waterloo	Westbound exit and eastbound entrance
Weber Street, Fairway Road
RR 8 to Hwy 401 west – Cambridge, London	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance; former Hwy 8
RR 38 (Sportsworld Drive, Maple Grove Road)
Hwy 401 east – Toronto	Eastbound exit and westbound entrance

[edit] Cambridge and Hamilton

Highway 8 then enters Cambridge, following city streets such as Shantz Hill Road, Fountain Street, King Street, Coronation Boulevard, and Dundas Street. It then continues as a normal road out of Cambridge and into Hamilton, ending at Highway 5 in the town of Peters Corners.

[edit] Control Cities

• Goderich, Ontario
• Stratford, Ontario
• Kitchener, Ontario
• Cambridge, Ontario
• Hamilton, Ontario

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Highway 8
• Google Maps of Highway 8

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