Howard Avenue (Windsor, Ontario)

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Howard Avenue
Howard Road, Howard Street, Howard, 7th Concession, County Road 9 Maintained by Maintained by the Essex County transportation department
Length:	36 km (22 mi)
Direction:	East/West
From:	Intersection of Cataraqui Street, Aylmer Avenue (SB) and Glengarry (NB) in Windsor, Ontario
To:	Intersection with County Road 20 in Amherstburg, Ontario
Major cities:	Windsor, Tecumseh, LaSalle, Amherstburg, Ontario

Howard Avenue is one of Windsor, Ontario, Canada's main north-south arterial roads, serving Casino Windsor, downtown Windsor, and Devonshire Mall, before leading into Essex County. The road is very heavily travelled, with over 35,000 cars per day.

[edit] Route description

Howard officially begins at the convergance of two one-way streets, Aylmer (southbound), and Glengarry (northbound) at Cataraqui Street in Windsor. The road widens to four lanes at Tecumseh Road, and widens to an urban five-lane cross-section at Eugenie Street, before expanding to a full six lanes (three northbound, three southbound).

It continues south to a parclo/diamond interchange with E.C. Row Expressway, at Devonshire Mall and Roundhouse Centre. Just south of Devonshire Mall, the road defaults traffic onto the four-lane section of Provincial Road, with traffic signals to allow traffic to continue onto Howard Avenue, or to turn left (east) into the Devonshire Mall parking lot. Immediately south of this, the road narrows down to two lanes, and has a semi-rural appearance, with much lower traffic volumes.

The road proceeds this way before briefly widening to four lanes at the Cabana Road intersection. It then proceeds south as two-lanes towards the Dougall Avenue/Dougall Parkway interchange, providing access to Highway 401.

From here, the road heads due south towards Talbot Road/Highway 3. Once it leaves the Windsor City limits, the road gains the designation of Essex County Road 9 (formerly a Windsor Suburban Road), and travels south to its terminus with County Road 20.

[edit] Former highway designations

Main article: Highway 3B (Ontario)

Howard Avenue formerly carried the designation of Highway 3A from 1929 to 1935. It was re-designated as 3B in 1935, and this lasted until 1975, when it was repealed in favour of "connecting link" status (allowing the city of Windsor and map companies to still list and sign the road as 3B, and receive some funding for maintenance). This was fully repealed in 1998.

The designation of Highway 3B travelled along Howard Avenue to the Dougall Avenue interchange, continuing along Dougall Avenue to Ouellette, leading to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. Dougall Parkway was confusingly listed and signed as Highway 401 (along with the actual Highway 401, which terminated at Highway 3, a few kilometres to the south.

[edit] Upgrades

Upon completion of the Walker Road/CP Rail railroad grade separation, the City of Windsor (with the Ministry of Transportation) have stated they will rebuild the Howard Avenue/CP Rail crossing so that Howard Avenue (a very busy 4-lane urban arterial road) travels under the railway, much like Walker Road. However, to minimize disruption (and keep Walker Road from being used as a bypass), the MTO and City of Windsor have done some studies on how to create a temporary four-lane road beside the future construction site, to keep traffic flowing until the grade separation is complete. While there is enough space for a second, temporary, four-lane road, some property from nearby businesses and homes may need to be temporarily used. This project is slated to begin in early 2009, and cost roughly the same amount as the Walker Road project (around $50 million), and take roughly the same amount of time (16-18 months) to complete. The money from both projects is being funded from the $300 million the Federal Government of Canada gave Windsor in 2003 for infrastructure (roadways) and border crossing improvements (to keep traffic and trucks moving smoothly through Windsor).