Ontario Highway 410

King's Highway 410, also known as Highway 410 and colloquially as the four-ten, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that connects Highways 401 and 403 to Highway 10, through Greater Toronto's western suburbs of Mississauga and Brampton. Its total length is slightly over 20 kilometres (12 mi).

A notable feature of Highway 410 is the four-level interchange with Highways 401 and 403 which includes a large flyover ramp from Highway 401 eastbound to Highway 410 northbound. From Highway 401 to Steeles Avenue, Highway 410 has a wide grassy median with the capacity for two additional lanes in each direction.

Route description

Highway 410 is a commuter freeway and a bypass of Brampton, acting as the southward continuation of Highway 10. The highway is also a continuation of Highway 403 from the south, which ends at the 401. The freeway begins as several ramps converge from Highway 401 north of the large interchange.^[4] Maintaining a straight north-westward course, it passes beneath Courtney Park Drive and Derry Road, with a slight jog to the right between the two underpasses. The freeway then intersects Highway 407 as it crosses into Brampton and passes beneath an electrical corridor. Veering to the right once again, the freeway enters a second industrialized area and returns to its northwest–southeast orientation. It passes beneath Steeles Avenue and later Queen Street East, the former Highway 7, now Peel Regional Road 107. From this point north to Bovaird Drive, the two highways were concurrent. Passing north of Queen Street, the highway exits the industrial area and enters residential subdivisions.

Throughout this section, Highway 410 is placed within a ditch below grade. It passes beneath several roads until Bovaird Drive. The recently completed extension begins at this point,^[5] as Highway 410 passes to the west of Trinity Common and diverges from its straight path into greenspace and alongside the Heart Lake Conservation Area.^[6] As it passes beneath Mayfield Road, the highway makes a sharp turn to the west and descends through the Etobicoke Creek valley.^[7] After rising back to level ground, it curves north, passing beneath Valleywood Drive. The central concrete median and high-mast lighting end as the freeway becomes Highway 10. It continues north as a four-lane undivided road to Orangeville, Shelburne and eventually Owen Sound.^[8]

History

Ontario Premier Bill Davis, who was known as "Brampton Billy", initiated the construction of Highway 410 along the Heart Lake Road corridor during his administration. The first step in the 1970s was redirecting of Highway 403's (Mississauga section) eastern terminus towards Highway 401 instead of having it continue towards Highway 427 as originally planned. Highway 410 was then added to the 401-403 junction as a partial interchange with Highway 401 (eastbound only) and the rest of Highway 410 was constructed as a two-lane freeway. The two lane highway opened in 1978, featuring a single directional and loop ramp at Highway 401 to provide access to and from Toronto. This interchange was a better connection point for Highway 403, and plans were revised to have it turn north at Cawthra Road. These plans were submitted and approved in 1978 by Mississauga, and construction began.

By the early 1980s, the northern part of Highway 410 from Clark Boulevard to Bovaird Drive was a limited-access 4 lane expressway; Clark Boulevard and Queen Street were the original interchanges at the time. This section was widened to six lanes in the late 1990s.

In the late eighties and early 1990s, Highway 410 was expanded alongside the construction of Highway 407. The freeway was widened to 6 lanes south of Clark Boulevard, with much of the work involving the twinning of the existing carriageway, the original lanes were re-designated for northbound traffic. High-mast lighting was installed and new interchanges were added with Courtneypark Drive and Derry Road. The Courtneypark Drive overpass was widened from two to five lanes, while the Derry Road junction was designed with braided ramps to accommodate the Highway 407 clover-stack junction undergoing construction nearby.

The interchange with Highway 401 was opened to traffic ramp-by-ramp beginning August 28, 1990 and continuing to the end of the year.^[9]

In the fall of 1991, alongside the widening of Highway 410 into a full freeway, construction began on the connecting ramps between Highway 403 and Highway 410, which pass under the existing bridge structures for Highway 401 collector traffic, while new overpasses were constructed for the Highway 401 express lanes.^[10] The 2.2 km (1.4 mi) link opened on November 2, 1992 at a cost of $7.3 million.^[11]

Extension

The extension beyond Boivard Drive to Hurontario was conceived as part of the ultimate plan for Highway 410 when it was under construction in 1982.^[12] It would take until 2003 for construction to begin.^[13] Planning for the 8.5 km (5.3 mi) freeway began with the submitting of an Environmental Assessment by the MTO in October 1995.^[14] The assessment was approved without a hearing by the Minister of Environment and Energy on March 5, 1997.^[15] The next several years were spent on engineering and design. The new section, planned and built as a four lane freeway, was constructed on a new alignment in order to bypass the Heart Lake Conservation Area. It was completed in phases: initially to the new eastward extension of Sandalwood Parkway, later to Mayfield Road and finally to Highway 10 north of Sandalwood.^[16]

Ernie Eves officially announced the extension on June 23, 2003; construction subsequently began on the first phase.^[13][16] On May 15, 2006 construction began on the second phase between Sandalwood Parkway and Mayfield Drive.^[5] The first two phases were built by Dufferin Construction and opened together in mid–late 2007; the northbound lanes were opened by the beginning of September and the southbound lanes by the end of the month. Upon its opening, trucks were prohibited from driving along it due to concerns of them travelling on the two lane Mayfield Road; this ban has since been lifted.^[17] Construction on the third phase between Mayfield Road and Highway 10 began in August 2007.^[7] The entire extension was completed and opened to traffic on November 16, 2009. Additional work continued in the months that followed to clean up the land surrounding the new freeway.^[2]

Exit list

The entirety of Highway 410 is located within the Regional Municipality of Peel.^[8]

References

External links

• Video of Highway 410 from north to south
• Canada NewsWire Press Release
• Highway 410 route