The Conestoga Parkway, officially the Kitchener–Waterloo Expressway, is a controlled-access highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, located entirely within the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. The 20.7-kilometre (12.9 mi) route travels east and then north through the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo, and is connected to Highway 401 via Highway 8 and King Street East. The name Conestoga Parkway is not a formal designation, but rather a local name applied to the divided expressway portions of Highway 7, Highway 8 and Highway 85 through Kitchener and Waterloo. The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), which built and maintains the route, refers to it as the Kitchener–Waterloo Expressway.

Originally conceived as a ring road in the 1940s, the concept evolved into a pair of at-grade four lane boulevards known as Henry Sturm Boulevard (east–west) and Dryden Boulevard (north–south), for which land was gradually purchased through the 1950s and into the early 1960s. The completion of Highway 401 between Toronto and Highway 8 in 1960 resulted in businesses relocating closer to it; consequently, traffic planners redesigned the boulevards into a continuous four lane expressway in 1962.

Construction of the Kitchener–Waterloo Expressway began in 1966 with the rebuilding of King Street East into a divided highway. This project also resulted in the construction of the interchange with the future expressway, which was named the Conestoga Parkway in 1967. The northern and western legs were built outwards from this interchange simultaneously over the following five years, opening in sections between 1968 and 1971. At that time, the route extended west to Fischer-Hallman Road and north to the southern interchange with King Street North. Two lane extensions opened in 1973 and 1977 to connect the parkway with New Hamburg and St. Jacobs, respectively. Portions of these were expanded to four lanes in the early 1990s. A series of projects saw the parkway completely rebuilt through its central section between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, including a concrete median barrier, additional lanes, and a new flyover ramp at Highway 8.

An ongoing but frequently delayed project to construct a new freeway between Kitchener and Guelph will see a new interchange built at the existing Wellington Street interchange, in addition to the numerous bridges that have already been lengthened in the vicinity. There is currently no projected timeline for the construction of completion of this project as of 2022.

The Conestoga Parkway is a 20.7-kilometre (12.9 mi) controlled-access freeway serving the twin cities of Kitchener and Waterloo. The route, which forms the rough shape of a backwards "L", serves as the backbone of the two cities. As the concurrency of Highway 7 and Highway 8 enters the city of Kitchener as a freeway from the west, it takes on the name Conestoga Parkway at the Waterloo Regional Road 70 (Trussler Road) exit at the western edge of the city. The parkway travels east until Highway 8 diverges southeast toward Cambridge. Now carrying only the Highway 7 designation, the Conestoga Parkway curves northward. At the Frederick Street and Victoria Street interchange, Highway 7 exits the parkway and follows Victoria Street east toward Guelph; the parkway henceforth is signed as Highway 85 to its northern end, which lies approximately 750 metres (820 yd) north of the Waterloo city limits. The Conestoga Parkway is maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO), which officially refers to it as the Kitchener–Waterloo Expressway. The speed limit on the parkway is 90 kilometres per hour (55 mph) throughout its length.

At the Kitchener city limits at Trussler Road the concurrency of Highway 7/8 continues west as a four lane freeway towards Stratford. Within Kitchener, the Conestoga Parkway consistently acts as the boundary for neighbourhoods to either side of it. Initially, it is sandwiched between the suburban residential neighbourhoods of Forest Heights and Laurentian West neighbourhoods, to the north and south respectively, as it travels east to Regional Road 58 (Fischer–Hallman Road). There the median switches from grass to a concrete barrier, and the parkway widens to six lanes. It passes north of the Sunrise Shopping Centre before once again bisecting residential neighbourhoods, namely Forest Hill and Meinzinger Park to the north and Laurentian Hills to the south.

Approaching the Regional Road 28 (Homer Watson Boulevard) interchange – which provides access to Regional Road 4 (Ottawa Street) – retail and light industry in the Alpine neighbourhood begin to flank the southern side of the Conestoga Parkway. It then crosses over the Canadian National Railways Huron Park spur, the adjacent ION LRT line, and Schneider Creek immediately west of an interchange with Regional Road 53 (Courtland Avenue). Now serving as the boundary between the residential neighbourhoods of Rockway to the north and Vanier to the south, the route curves north-northeast to reach an interchange with the Freeport Diversion (also known as the King Street Bypass or Highway 8 expressway).

The portion of the Conestoga Parkway that travels perpendicular to King Street East follows alongside Montgomery Creek. Now eight lanes wide, it passes over Weber Street and then curves north-northwest to avoid the Stanley Park Conservation Area, with the neighbourhoods of Eastwood to the west and Stanley Park to the southeast. The parkway follows the former alignment of Edna Street north to Frederick Street, with the neighbourhoods of Auditorium and Central Frederick to the west and Rosemount to the east. It briefly swerves northwards, passing under Frederick Street, Victoria Street, and the Kitchener GO line in quick succession. An interchange serves both Frederick Street and Victoria Street via the parallel roads of Regional Road 62 (Edna Street) and Regional Road 61 (Bruce Street); an interchange with Wellington Street follows soon thereafter. Due to the close proximity of these two interchanges, the Conestoga Parkway utilizes a brief local–express system for approximately 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi).