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Ontario Highway 427
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Ontario Highway 427
King's Highway 427 (pronounced "four twenty-seven"), also known as Highway 427 and colloquially as the 427, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that runs from the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) and Gardiner Expressway in Toronto to Major Mackenzie Drive (York Regional Road 25) in Vaughan, near the hydro towers. It is Ontario's second busiest freeway by volume and the third busiest in North America, after Highway 401 in Ontario and Interstate 405 in California. Like Highway 401, a portion of the route is divided into a collector-express system with twelve to fourteen continuous lanes. Notable about Highway 427 are its several multi-level interchanges; the junctions with the QEW/Gardiner Expressway and Highway 401 are two of the largest interchanges in Toronto (and Ontario) and were constructed between 1967 and 1971, while the interchanges with Highway 409 (Toronto) and Highway 407 (Vaughan) were completed in 1992 and 1995, respectively.
Highway 427 is one of two complete north-south freeways in Toronto, the only other one being Highway 404/Don Valley Parkway (DVP) serving North York and Scarborough. Highway 427 serves as a major traffic route for the western portion of Toronto (Etobicoke), the northeastern portion of Mississauga (Malton), the southeastern portion of Brampton (Claireville), and the western portion of Vaughan (Woodbridge). The section of Highway 427 between Highway 401 and Dundas Street (Highway 5) is a heavily traversed transit corridor; the 1.61-kilometre (1.00 mi) stretch between Burnhamthorpe Road and Rathburn Road saw an average of over 400,000 vehicles and over 5,000 buses per day in 2016, including express buses from GO Transit, MiWay, and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The freeway is also the main feeder to Toronto Pearson International Airport from the north and south, as a considerable amount of traffic from Highway 401 (eastbound), the QEW/Gardiner Expressway, and Highway 407 make use of the route for airport access.
First designated in 1972, Highway 427 assumed the recently completed, 12-lane, collector-express freeway of Highway 27, as well as a short freeway north of Highway 401 known as the Airport Expressway. Both routes were upgraded throughout the 1950s and 1960s, eventually becoming intertwined into the present configuration in 1972. The freeway was extended north from Pearson Airport to Highway 7 over the following twenty years. Construction of an extension north to York Regional Road 25 (Major Mackenzie Drive) began in 2017 and was opened on September 18, 2021.
Highway 427 is the second-busiest freeway in Canada with an average of 300,000 vehicles that use it between the QEW and Highway 401 per day. The section between Burnhamthorpe Road and Rathburn Road has an annual average daily traffic (AADT) count of 353,100 vehicles. The route was 19.9 km (12.4 mi) long from 1991 until 2021, when the latest extension increases its length to approximately 17 miles (27 km).
At its southern terminus, the route begins at Coules Court, where it continues as Brown's Line, once the southernmost stretch of Highway 27. Alderwood Plaza, located on the east side of the route, has a parking lot which provides access to the highway; this is the only at-grade access along the length of the route. The four-lane arterial road splits into a divided highway, then descends below Evans Avenue, where a northbound exit ramp to the latter allows indirect access to the Hamilton-bound QEW at the intersection with The West Mall (TWM), plus there are also connecting ramps to the highway north of Evans Avenue. The highway then weaves through a complicated, semi-directional T interchange, providing northbound access to Evans Avenue and the Gardiner Expressway, and southbound access to The Queensway, the QEW/Gardiner Expressway, and Evans Avenue. North of that massive interchange, the lanes from Brown's Line diverge and form the collector lanes of a collector-express system. Flyover ramps to and from the QEW/Gardiner pass over the southbound lanes and converge to form the express lanes. This collector-express system serves to divide local traffic from freeway-to-freeway traffic; the express lanes provide access between the QEW/Gardiner Expressway and Highway 401, while the collector lanes provide local access between those interchanges.
After crossing Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) tracks, the highway interchanges with Dundas Street (formerly Highway 5). A set of criss-crossing ramps provide access between the collector and express lanes north of this point, referred to as "The Basketweave", with the northbound express-to-collector transfer also having an offramp to The East Mall (TEM) and Dundas Street. North of Dundas, Highway 427 has a northbound right-in/right-out (RIRO) interchange with Gibbs Road, the first of several that provide collector lane access to minor streets that mostly connect to The East Mall and The West Mall, which run parallel with the collector-express section of the highway. The highway passes beneath Bloor Street, then a full Parclo A4 interchange is provided shortly after with Burnhamthorpe Road, southwest of Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute. Across from the school, another RIRO provides access from the southbound lanes to Holiday Drive and The West mall (which terminates). Following the off-ramp, to the north, is a half-cloverleaf interchange with Rathburn Road, which provides access from the northbound lanes and to the southbound lanes.
Transfers provide a second and final opportunity to cross between the express and collector lanes (or vice versa), south of the complicated, 1.56-square-kilometre (0.60 sq mi), Highway 401 spaghetti interchange. A final RIRO provides southbound access to and from Eringate Drive, after which the collector lanes diverge, and the express lanes cross the southbound collectors. The collector lanes cross Eglinton Avenue at a half-cloverleaf interchange and then dives under Highway 401 while transitioning into Highway 27, while the express lanes interchange with Highway 401 and continue the route of Highway 427. The Highway 427 express lanes, along with ramps connecting to Highway 401, are constructed around the Richview Memorial Cemetery. Highway 427 passes through the sprawling Highway 401 Interchange and becomes displaced approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) to the west. There are no ramps to provide access from southbound Highway 427 to eastbound Highway 401 (and vice versa), as this connection is handled by Highway 409.
Highway 427 crosses Renforth Drive, then curves to the east of Runways 24R and 24L of Toronto Pearson International Airport. Shortly thereafter, the freeway narrows to eight lanes before it crosses Dixon Road and Airport Road (Peel Regional Road 7), between which the freeway forms the demarcation line. At the Dixon Road partial interchange, which only serves the freeway south of this junction, another ramp branches off and passes under the highway, providing access to Pearson Airport. From here to just south of Finch Avenue, the freeway follows the boundary line between Toronto and Mississauga. The freeway encounters the third multi-level junction along its length, a cloverstack with Highway 409, which provides access to the airport for the freeway west of this junction. This interchange also provides the southbound movement to eastbound movement to Highway 401, via a flyover ramp to Highway 409, that cannot be performed at the larger interchange with Highway 401 to the south. There is no movement from northbound to westbound at the interchange with Highway 409, since airport access is already provided at the Dixon Road exit to the south. Highway 427 continues straight north and narrows again to six lanes.
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Ontario Highway 427
King's Highway 427 (pronounced "four twenty-seven"), also known as Highway 427 and colloquially as the 427, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that runs from the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) and Gardiner Expressway in Toronto to Major Mackenzie Drive (York Regional Road 25) in Vaughan, near the hydro towers. It is Ontario's second busiest freeway by volume and the third busiest in North America, after Highway 401 in Ontario and Interstate 405 in California. Like Highway 401, a portion of the route is divided into a collector-express system with twelve to fourteen continuous lanes. Notable about Highway 427 are its several multi-level interchanges; the junctions with the QEW/Gardiner Expressway and Highway 401 are two of the largest interchanges in Toronto (and Ontario) and were constructed between 1967 and 1971, while the interchanges with Highway 409 (Toronto) and Highway 407 (Vaughan) were completed in 1992 and 1995, respectively.
Highway 427 is one of two complete north-south freeways in Toronto, the only other one being Highway 404/Don Valley Parkway (DVP) serving North York and Scarborough. Highway 427 serves as a major traffic route for the western portion of Toronto (Etobicoke), the northeastern portion of Mississauga (Malton), the southeastern portion of Brampton (Claireville), and the western portion of Vaughan (Woodbridge). The section of Highway 427 between Highway 401 and Dundas Street (Highway 5) is a heavily traversed transit corridor; the 1.61-kilometre (1.00 mi) stretch between Burnhamthorpe Road and Rathburn Road saw an average of over 400,000 vehicles and over 5,000 buses per day in 2016, including express buses from GO Transit, MiWay, and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The freeway is also the main feeder to Toronto Pearson International Airport from the north and south, as a considerable amount of traffic from Highway 401 (eastbound), the QEW/Gardiner Expressway, and Highway 407 make use of the route for airport access.
First designated in 1972, Highway 427 assumed the recently completed, 12-lane, collector-express freeway of Highway 27, as well as a short freeway north of Highway 401 known as the Airport Expressway. Both routes were upgraded throughout the 1950s and 1960s, eventually becoming intertwined into the present configuration in 1972. The freeway was extended north from Pearson Airport to Highway 7 over the following twenty years. Construction of an extension north to York Regional Road 25 (Major Mackenzie Drive) began in 2017 and was opened on September 18, 2021.
Highway 427 is the second-busiest freeway in Canada with an average of 300,000 vehicles that use it between the QEW and Highway 401 per day. The section between Burnhamthorpe Road and Rathburn Road has an annual average daily traffic (AADT) count of 353,100 vehicles. The route was 19.9 km (12.4 mi) long from 1991 until 2021, when the latest extension increases its length to approximately 17 miles (27 km).
At its southern terminus, the route begins at Coules Court, where it continues as Brown's Line, once the southernmost stretch of Highway 27. Alderwood Plaza, located on the east side of the route, has a parking lot which provides access to the highway; this is the only at-grade access along the length of the route. The four-lane arterial road splits into a divided highway, then descends below Evans Avenue, where a northbound exit ramp to the latter allows indirect access to the Hamilton-bound QEW at the intersection with The West Mall (TWM), plus there are also connecting ramps to the highway north of Evans Avenue. The highway then weaves through a complicated, semi-directional T interchange, providing northbound access to Evans Avenue and the Gardiner Expressway, and southbound access to The Queensway, the QEW/Gardiner Expressway, and Evans Avenue. North of that massive interchange, the lanes from Brown's Line diverge and form the collector lanes of a collector-express system. Flyover ramps to and from the QEW/Gardiner pass over the southbound lanes and converge to form the express lanes. This collector-express system serves to divide local traffic from freeway-to-freeway traffic; the express lanes provide access between the QEW/Gardiner Expressway and Highway 401, while the collector lanes provide local access between those interchanges.
After crossing Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) tracks, the highway interchanges with Dundas Street (formerly Highway 5). A set of criss-crossing ramps provide access between the collector and express lanes north of this point, referred to as "The Basketweave", with the northbound express-to-collector transfer also having an offramp to The East Mall (TEM) and Dundas Street. North of Dundas, Highway 427 has a northbound right-in/right-out (RIRO) interchange with Gibbs Road, the first of several that provide collector lane access to minor streets that mostly connect to The East Mall and The West Mall, which run parallel with the collector-express section of the highway. The highway passes beneath Bloor Street, then a full Parclo A4 interchange is provided shortly after with Burnhamthorpe Road, southwest of Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute. Across from the school, another RIRO provides access from the southbound lanes to Holiday Drive and The West mall (which terminates). Following the off-ramp, to the north, is a half-cloverleaf interchange with Rathburn Road, which provides access from the northbound lanes and to the southbound lanes.
Transfers provide a second and final opportunity to cross between the express and collector lanes (or vice versa), south of the complicated, 1.56-square-kilometre (0.60 sq mi), Highway 401 spaghetti interchange. A final RIRO provides southbound access to and from Eringate Drive, after which the collector lanes diverge, and the express lanes cross the southbound collectors. The collector lanes cross Eglinton Avenue at a half-cloverleaf interchange and then dives under Highway 401 while transitioning into Highway 27, while the express lanes interchange with Highway 401 and continue the route of Highway 427. The Highway 427 express lanes, along with ramps connecting to Highway 401, are constructed around the Richview Memorial Cemetery. Highway 427 passes through the sprawling Highway 401 Interchange and becomes displaced approximately 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) to the west. There are no ramps to provide access from southbound Highway 427 to eastbound Highway 401 (and vice versa), as this connection is handled by Highway 409.
Highway 427 crosses Renforth Drive, then curves to the east of Runways 24R and 24L of Toronto Pearson International Airport. Shortly thereafter, the freeway narrows to eight lanes before it crosses Dixon Road and Airport Road (Peel Regional Road 7), between which the freeway forms the demarcation line. At the Dixon Road partial interchange, which only serves the freeway south of this junction, another ramp branches off and passes under the highway, providing access to Pearson Airport. From here to just south of Finch Avenue, the freeway follows the boundary line between Toronto and Mississauga. The freeway encounters the third multi-level junction along its length, a cloverstack with Highway 409, which provides access to the airport for the freeway west of this junction. This interchange also provides the southbound movement to eastbound movement to Highway 401, via a flyover ramp to Highway 409, that cannot be performed at the larger interchange with Highway 401 to the south. There is no movement from northbound to westbound at the interchange with Highway 409, since airport access is already provided at the Dixon Road exit to the south. Highway 427 continues straight north and narrows again to six lanes.