Conestoga Parkway

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The Conestoga Parkway is a freeway in Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada. It runs northeast/southwest through the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, linking the cities via the Highway 8 Freeport Diversion freeway to the main east/west route, Highway 401.

1 Naming and description
2 Improvements
3 List of exits
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Naming and description

It is numbered in three sections: the westernmost portion from Baden to the Highway 8 interchange is multiplexed as Highway 7/8; the central section from 8 to the Victoria Street exit is Highway 7; and the northeast portion, into Waterloo through to St. Jacobs is Highway 85. The highway number was changed from Highway 86 in 2003 and the new number technically starts slightly north of the King Street North exit, and ends at the Victoria Street exit, where it becomes Highway 7. The name Conestoga Parkway ends at Trussler Road, and continues as Highway 7/8. Where Highway 85 ends, in Waterloo, it turns into Arthur Street S., which leads into Elmira, and St.Jacobs. The Conestoga Parkway begins in St.Jacobs, just before the City of Waterloo border.

While it is officially known as the Conestoga Parkway, it is often referred to by locals as the Conestoga Expressway or simply The Expressway. The name no longer appears on signage, however, and is little known outside the immediate area.

Note that the Parkway is merely the expressway portion of the various numbered highways, all of which continue for some distance as open-access highways beyond the expressway section. Thus, the expressway has the distinction of being one of the few Ontario-maintained freeways not numbered according to the 400-Series Highway network, even though it is busier and wider than many rural 400-series highways, because the freeway upgrade put together only parts of existing routes. The 400-series highways are intended to be full freeways for their entire length.

The speed limit on the Conestoga Parkway is 90 km/h (55 mph). This is unusual for a provincially-maintained freeway in Ontario, but some sections are below the standards of 400-Series Highways.

[edit] Improvements

Image:Conestoga.jpg

The parkway is one of the busiest roads in the region. It was completed as a four-lane freeway in the late 1960s, with the exception of the short eight-lane collector-express system serving Highway 7/Victoria Street and Wellington Street. Since the late 1990s, it has undergone extensive reconstruction between Courtland Avenue and Lancaster Street, with the addition of an Ontario "tall-wall" concrete barrier and high-mast lighting replacing the conventional mercury truss lights. The widening project resulted that stretch of the Parkway being widenened to at least six lanes, and eight lanes between Highway 8 and Victoria Street. In 2004, extensive improvements were completed around the former obsolete and bottlenecked "half-cloverleaf" junction with the freeway section of Highway 8, that links it to the 401. This included a new flyover semi-directional ramp from Conestoga westbound to Highway 8 eastbound, while the ramp in the opposite direction was widened from one to two lanes.

An observation which may seem odd for those new to the highway is the stark difference in the congested, inefficient exit for Highway 7/Victoria Street, when compared with the high-capacity but underused Wellington Street exit just north of it. Both exits are served by a collector-express system. This is due to the 'foresight' that Highway 7 would be redirected as a controlled-access highway and attached to the existing Wellington Street interchange; these plans have languished for over 30 years and are still in the planning stages. Opposition has arisen due to the new alignment of Highway 7 passing through environmentally sensitive lands. The new Highway 7 freeway proposal linking up the Conestoga in Waterloo and the Hanlon Parkway in Guelph bypasses the existing Highway 7/Victoria Street. The plans also call for a complex 4-level interchange with the Conestoga Parkway and Wellington Street, a rarity outside of the Greater Toronto Area. Its $25 million cost represents a quarter of the $100 million budget for the total project, with the high cost partly due to the difficulty in land acquisition to accommodate the flyover ramps.

In addition to the proposed Highway 7 freeway between Waterloo and Guelph, the MTO has long term plans to extend the Conestoga Parkway (Highway 7/8) westward to Stratford, although that extension may not be known by the "Conestoga Parkway" name.

[edit] List of exits

The following is a list of exits along the parkway. The exits on Conestoga Parkway are not numbered, and likely never will be due to the multiple designations used, which would make it impossible to have consistent kilometre posts.

Municipality	Direction	Intersecting Roads
Wilmot Township		Waterloo Region Route 51, Foundry St.
Wilmot Township		Waterloo Region Route 12, Notre Dame Dr., Queen St.
Kitchener		Waterloo Region Route 70, Trussler Rd.
		Waterloo Region Route 58, Fischer Hallman Rd.
		Waterloo Region Route 4, Ottawa St. S.; Waterloo Region Route 58, Homer Watson Blvd.
		Waterloo Region Route 53s, Courtland Ave. E.
		Highway 8, King St. Bypass
		Waterloo Region Route 4, Ottawa St. N.
	Northbound	Highway 7, Waterloo Region Route 61, Bruce St.; Highway 7, Waterloo Region Route 55, Victoria St. N.
	Southbound	Highway 7, Waterloo Region Route 62, Edna St.; Highway 7, Waterloo Region Route 55, Victoria St. N.
	Northbound	Riverbend Dr.; Shirley Ave.
	Northbound	Wellington St. N.
	Southbound	Wellington St. N.; Riverbend Dr.; Shirley Ave.
Waterloo	Southbound	Waterloo Region Route 29 South, Lancaster St. W.
		Waterloo Region Route 9, Bridgeport Rd. E.
	Northbound	Waterloo Region Route 57 East, University Ave. E.
	Northbound	Waterloo Region Route 57 West, University Ave. E.
	Southbound	Waterloo Region Route 57, University Ave. E.
		Waterloo Region Route 15, King St. N.
		Waterloo Region Route 50, Northfield Dr. W.
		Waterloo Region Route 15, King St. N.