Ontario Highway 401 facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Highway 401
Macdonald–Cartier Freeway
Highway 401 within Ontario, Canada
Route information
Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Length	817.9 km (508.2 mi)
History	Proposed 1938 Opened December 1947 – October 11, 1968
Major junctions
West end	Highway 3 to Windsor
	Highway 402 in London  Highway 403 near Woodstock Highway 407 near Milton   Highway 403 / Highway 410 in Mississauga  Highway 427 in Toronto  Highway 409 in Toronto  Highway 400 in Toronto Don Valley Parkway / Highway 404 in Toronto  Highway 416 towards Ottawa
East end	A-20 towards Montreal, QC
Location
Major cities:	Windsor, London, Kitchener, Mississauga, Toronto, Oshawa, Kingston and Cornwall
Highway system
Ontario provincial highways List 400-series Former ← Highway 400 Highway 402 →

Ontario Highway 401, also called King's Highway 401, is a provincial highway in southern Ontario, Canada. It is 817.9 kilometres (508.2 miles) long. It starts near Ontario's border with Quebec, where the road is called Quebec Autoroute 20. The western end of the highway is in Windsor.

Construction on the highway started in 1947. By 1952, three different parts of the highway were finished, with the three parts connected by 1964. In 2013, another part of the highway was started. This part would extend the highway to the New International Trade Crossing at the Canadian-U.S. border near Detroit.

In 2008, part of the highway between Trenton and Toronto was called the "Highway of Heroes". This was because many Canadian soldiers who were killed overseas arrived at the Trenton airforce base. Their bodies were then transported along the highway to Toronto.

Images for kids

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  The widest segment of Highway 401 is near Toronto Pearson International Airport, with 18 through lanes. Also shown is the Dixie Road interchange.

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  Highway 401 widens to six lanes at Highway 402 in London.

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  Highway 401 at Weston Road has a volume of over 500,000 vehicles per day during the summer months.

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  Different colours are used on the signs on Highway 401's collector-express system to avoid confusion. The express lanes use green signs and the collector lanes use blue.

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  "The Basketweave", just east of the Highway 400 interchange, is a free-flowing crossover between the collector and express lanes.

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  Highway 401 looking west from Don Mills Road overpass, with the Concord Park Place condo development and North York General Hospital in the background.

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  Highway 401 just west of Leslie Street

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  Through much of eastern Ontario, Highway 401 is a rural freeway with a grass median.

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  Highway 401 ends at the Quebec border, where Autoroute 20 continues towards Montreal and the Maritime provinces.

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  Finished grading of the Thousand Islands Parkway (Highway 2S) in 1944

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  The former Highway 2A near Highland Creek, aside from a resurfaced pavement, has not been altered since it opened in 1947.

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  The Highway 400 interchange in 1953. Today, the former cloverleaf has been replaced with a multilevel interchange.

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  Within years after opening, the four-lane Toronto Bypass was congested, prompting the Department of Highways to widen this section to 12 lanes beginning in 1963.

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  A plaque near Brockville commemorates the official completion of the highway.

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  The widening of Highway 401 from four to twelve lanes in Toronto took nine years and was accomplished with at least four lanes open at all times. Shown here is the Highway 401 / Don Valley Parkway / Highway 404 interchange under construction in 1965.

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  Highway 401 at Meadowvale Road in 1989, before being widened to a 14-lane collector-express system

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  Highway 401 facing southwest in 1958, at the interchange with then-Highway 98 (now Provincial Road) in the foreground, and the split at Dougall Parkway in the background. This segment would be reconstructed in 2008-10.

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  Canadians line overpasses along the Highway of Heroes to pay their respects to fallen soldiers.

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  Highway 401 was widened in 2008 between Highway 402 and Wellington Road in London. Additional widening west of Highway 402 is planned.

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  An empty Highway 401 through Toronto following a series of propane explosions in 2008.

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  The Highway 401 extension in Windsor, opened in 2015, is a six-lane below-grade roadway with tunnels and greenspace. It will connect to the planned Gordie Howe International Bridge.

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  Highway 401 in the Greenbelt, at the interchange with Guelph Line. The stretch of Highway 401 between Highway 8 and Highway 407 ETR is slated to be widened from six to ten lanes, including two HOV lanes.

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  Hwy. 401 widening work in Mississauga as seen from Mississauga Road in 2020

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  ONroute Cambridge South service station

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  Highway 401 looking east between Avenue Road and Yonge Street; the North York skyline is visible in the distance

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  Highway 401 at the interchange with Highway 410 and Highway 403 in Mississauga

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  Traffic cameras are mounted at every exit within Toronto and form one part of the COMPASS system.

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  The collector-express system just east of the Highway 400 interchange, with the "Basketweave" transfers between them in the background.

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  Winter conditions on Highway 401 in Toronto due to a snowsquall.