Cootes Drive

Cootes Drive
Highway 8D, Highway 102
Route information
Length: 3.5 km (2.2 mi)
(1963)
Existed: 1936 (as Highway 8D) – 1964 (as Highway 102)
Major junctions
West end: York Boulevard
East end:  Main Street (formerly Highway 2)
Location
Major cities: Hamilton, Ontario
Highway system

Roads in Ontario

Cootes Drive, formerly known as the Dundas Diversion, is a city street in Hamilton, Ontario. The route connects York Boulevard and King Street in Dundas with Highway 2 and Highway 8 to the southeast, and is considered the first divided highway in Canada.

Contents

Route description

The newly completed Dundas Diversion, 1937
Similar angle, 2007

Cootes Drive travels from Main Street West (former Highway 2 and Highway 8), past McMaster University, through Cootes Paradise to the former town Dundas, where it feeds into King Street.

There is a shared pedestrian and bicycle path along its length, and GO Transit operate two regional coach routes from their McMaster University GO Bus Terminal on the east side of Cootes Drive, at the edge of the university’s campus.

History

The Dundas Diversion was the first divided dual-carriageway road built in Canada; completed in 1936,[1] it predates the nearby Queen Elizabeth Way, which was still under construction at the time, with the name of ‘Middle Road’.

Cootes Drive is now signed as Hamilton Road 8. It was originally designated 8D (indicating that it was a diversion of Highway 8), then changed to the designation of Highway 102 in 1947, before being turned back to local authorities in 1964. The Highway 102 designation has since been reused on a different highway near Thunder Bay.

See also

References