Ontario Highway 20

King's Highway 20, also known as Highway 20, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Presently, it is a short 1.9 km (1.2 mi) stub between Highway 58 and Niagara Regional Road 70 in the town of Thorold.

History

First opened in 1930, Highway 20 stretched 68.2 km (42.4 mi) from downtown Niagara Falls (Lundy's Lane) to a junction with Queen Elizabeth Way in east Hamilton for the majority of its existence. On January 1, 1998, the province downloaded most of the highway onto municipalities of Hamilton and Niagara.

Route description

Even though only 1.9 kilometres of the highway are provincially maintained, the rest of the highway is still maintained to a high standard by the two regions, corresponding to the relatively high volumes of traffic it receives. The Niagara Road 20 and Hamilton Road 20 continue to play an important role in the lives of communities that grew on Highway 20, such as Fonthill and Smithville.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation reportedly kept a short section of Highway 20 because it may have been included in a planned westward extension of Highway 420 to reach Highway 406. The extension, however, was finalized to connect to Highway 58 rather than directly to Highway 406,^[2] and therefore the future of this small section of highway is in doubt.

At Allanburg, Highway 20 crosses the Welland Canal utilizing Bridge 11, also known as The Allanburg Bridge. The Allanburg Bridge is a vertical liftbridge.

The street is named for William Lundy, n United Empire Loyalist and local settler in the area.

Major intersections

The following table lists the major junctions along Highway 20. The entirety of the highway is located within the Regional Municipality of Niagara.

References