March Road

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March Road facing north
March Road facing north

March Road is an arterial boulevard in the Kanata section of Ottawa, Ontario.

The road begins at the point where Eagleson Road crosses The Queensway and turns to the west at the Dunrobin turnoff. The road continues past Carp, crosses The Queensway a second time and continues all the way to Almonte, Ontario. Drivers are sometimes thrown off by the appearance of two exits for March Road. March Road is also known as Ottawa Road #49.

March Road is sometimes referred to as Downtown Kanata, due to its hi-tech industry.

The section near Carling Avenue is sometimes referred to as the Canadian version of Silicon Valley, hence the nickname, Silicon Valley North. It is a main thoroughfare with a skyline of office buildings for a city of 85 000. Startup businesses like silicon chip innovators, IP companies, technology parks and microchip design operations occupy the side of the boulevard. This area was hit hard by the dot-com meltdown of post-2000. The departure of failed start-up IP companies resulted in 600,000 square feet of cheap real estate in the high tech city of Kanata, which is slowly filling up, to the point where new office buildings are again being constructed.