Predecessors supervising the
Queen's York Rangers cutting trees during the construction of Yonge Street, 1795|alt=A black and white sketch showing two high ranking British officers onlooking as several soldiers chop trees with axes to widen a path through a forest. The earliest established section of Highway11 is Yonge Street in Toronto and
York Region, though it is no longer part of it. Yonge Street was built under the order of the first
Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario),
John Graves Simcoe. Fearing imminent attack by the United States, he sought to create a military route between York (now Toronto) and
Lake Simcoe. In doing so, he would create an alternative means of reaching the
upper Great Lakes and the trading post at
Michilimackinac, bypassing the American border. In late 1793, Simcoe determined the route of his new road. The following spring, he instructed Deputy Surveyor General
Augustus Jones to blaze a small trail marking the route. Simcoe initiated construction of the road by granting land to settlers, who in exchange were required to clear of frontage on the road passing their
lot. In the summer of 1794,
William Berczy was the first to take up the offer, leading a group of 64 families north-east of Toronto to found the small settlement of
German Mills, in today's
Markham. By the end of 1794, Berczy's settlers had cleared the route around
Thornhill. However, the settlement was hit by a series of setbacks and road construction stalled. Work on the road resumed in 1795 when the
Queen's Rangers took over. They began their work at
Eglinton Avenue and proceeded north, reaching the site of St. Albans on February16, 1796. Expansion of the trail into a road was a condition of settlement for farmers along the route, who were required to spend 12days a year to clear the road of logs, subsequently removed by convicted drunks as part of their sentence. The southern end of the road was in use in the first decade of the 19th century, and became passable all the way to the northern end in 1816. For several years the
Holland River and Lake Simcoe provided the only means of transportation;
Holland Landing was the northern terminus of Yonge Street. The military route to
Georgian Bay prior to, and during the
War of 1812, crossed Lake Simcoe to the head of Kempenfelt Bay, then by the Nine Mile Portage to Willow Creek and the
Nottawasaga River. The Penetanguishene Military Post was started before the war. However, lacking a suitable overland transport route, passage from York to Lake Huron continued via the Nottawasaga. The Penetanguishene Road, begun in 1814, replaced this route by the time the military post was opened in 1817. at Crown Hill in 1931, shortly after being paved with concrete In 1824, work began to extend Yonge Street to
Kempenfelt Bay near
Barrie. A northwestern extension was branched off the original Yonge Street in Holland Landing and ran into the new settlement of
Bradford before turning back north towards Barrie. Work was completed by 1827, making connections with the Penetanguishene Road. A network of
colonization roads built in the 1830s (some with military strategy in mind) pushed settlement northeast along the shores of Lake Simcoe and north towards the shores of Georgian Bay. Construction of the
Muskoka Road began by the 1860s. The road, which penetrated the southern skirts of the
Canadian Shield and advanced towards
Lake Nipissing, reached as far as Bracebridge by 1861, and to Huntsville by 1863. It was officially opened when it reached
Lake Nipissing in 1874. Further extensions into Northern Ontario would await the arrival of the automobile, and consequent need for highway networks.
Assumption and paving Highway 11 was initially planned as a trunk road to connect the communities of
Southern Ontario to those of
Northern Ontario, as a continuous route from Toronto to
North Bay. In 1919,
Premier of Ontario Ernest Charles Drury created the
Department of Public Highways (DPHO), though much of the responsibility for establishing the route he left to minister of the new cabinet position,
Frank Campbell Biggs. By linking together several previously built roads such as
Yonge Street,
Penetanguishene Road,
Middle Crossroad and the
Muskoka Road—all early colonization roads in the region—a continuous route was created between Toronto and North Bay; however, the new department's jurisdiction did not extend north of the Severn River. Roads north of that point were maintained by the
Department of Northern Development (DND). In order to be eligible for federal funding, the DPHO established a network of provincial highways on February26, 1920. What would become Highway11 was routed along Yonge Street, its extension to the Penetanguishene Road, and the Muskoka Road as far as the
Severn River. The portions of Yonge Street through what is now
York Region, as well as Toronto as far south as Yonge Boulevard, were assumed by the DPHO on June24, 1920, while the portions through
Simcoe County, from
Bradford to
Severn Bridge were assumed two months later on August18. It received its numerical designation in the summer of 1925. The new route was mostly unpaved, with work beginning in 1922 to improve the roadway. That year saw paving completed between Yonge Boulevard and Thornhill, as well as a bypass of the original route through Holland Landing (now known as York Regional Road83). The pavement was extended farther north from Thornhill to Richmond Hill the following year. By 1925, the route was paved from Toronto north to
Fennell, as well as between
Orillia and
Washago. An additional north from Fennell were paved in 1926. In 1927, the pavement between Toronto and Barrie was completed with the paving of approximately south from Barrie. Between Barrie and Orillia, paving began in 1929, with the completion of approximately east from
Guthrie; at that point the highway turned north at 11th Line, then east at
East Oro along Sideroad15/16. That year also saw paving completed from Washago to north of
Gravenhurst. The following year, the newly-renamed Department of Highways (DHO) paved the remaining 13kilometres between Barrie and Guthrie, while the DND paved the Muskoka Road from Gravenhurst to Huntsville. The final of
unpaved road between Barrie and Orillia was completed in 1931. These delegations and committees also saw the potential tourist draw of opening the Temagami area to hunters, fishers, and recreational tourism. By 1923, a road existed between
Cobalt and
Kirkland Lake, as well as between
Ramore and Cochrane, with an approximately gap separating the two sections.
Conservative leader
Howard Ferguson promised to build a road to connect North Bay and Cochrane during the
1923 Ontario general election, which saw him elected as
premier. The route of the new road between North Bay and Cobalt was cleared by April 1925, after which construction began in August from both North Bay as well as Cobalt. The new gravel highway was officially opened on July2, 1927, by Minister of Lands and Forests
William Finlayson. He suggested at the opening that the road be named the
Ferguson Highway in honour of premier Ferguson. The name was originally suggested by North Bay mayor Dan Barker. Despite the official opening, a section between
Swastika and Ramore wasn't opened until August. The Ferguson Highway name was also applied to the Muskoka Road between Severn Bridge and North Bay. Although the route from North Bay to Cochrane was passable, it was not an adequate road in many places. Construction continued for several years to build bypasses of sharp turns, steep
grades, awkward rail crossings, and other obstacles. The Ferguson Highway was extended from Cochrane to
Kapuskasing by 1930, and later to Hearst in 1932. The
Provincial Highway Network was radically overhauled in 1937, when the merged with the on April1. Consequently, the DHO assumed responsibility of roads north of the
Trent–Severn Waterway over the next several months. On June2, of the Ferguson Highway was assumed by the DHO through
Cochrane District. This was followed one week later when of the Muskoka Road through the
District of Muskoka were assumed on June9. A portion of the route, which included a portion of what is now
Highway 94 to connect to the
Dionne quintuplets, was assumed through
Parry Sound District on June16. On June30, of the Ferguson Highway were assumed north of North Bay within
Nipissing District, as well as through
Timiskaming District. Highway11 grew in length from to . Construction began in 1938 on a road to connect Highway17 at Nipigon with the gold mines discovered near the town of Geraldton several years earlier. Although portions of this new road were passable by the end of 1939, the Nipigon–Geraldton Highway was opened ceremoniously by
Thomas McQuesten and
C. D. Howe on September7, 1940; it was assumed as a provincial highway in 1941. With the onset of World War II, the need for an east–west connection across Canada became imperative, and construction began on a link between Geraldton and Hearst, a distance of in 1939. Due to the shortage of labour, several prison camps were established between the two communities in October of that year and work began to clear a tote road for the movement of supplies over the following winter. While the highway was completed in November 1942, it was not maintained during through the winter, and the official opening did not take place until June12, 1943. Following this, Highway11 was extended to Nipigon, and was long.
Thunder Bay – Rainy River Highway11 ended at Nipigon until the late 1950s, after construction of a new highway west from Thunder Bay towards Fort Frances began. During World War II, large deposits of
iron ore were discovered at
Steep Rock Lake, around which the town of
Atikokan was developed. The need to connect the burgeoning community to the road network became apparent following a rail strike in August 1950, during which a "mercy train" was delivered to the isolated town. Throughout the fall of 1950, various delegates pressed the provincial government to construct a road link immediately. The province announced plans for the new highway between Atikokan and Shebandowan the following August, and released the proposed route on October10; construction began shortly thereafter. The Atikokan Highway was ceremonially opened by premier
Leslie Frost on August13, 1954, although traffic had used the incomplete road beginning in November 1953. At that event, which saw him use an axe to cut a ribbon, Frost announced the future vision to extend the new route to Fort Frances. Despite the opening, work was ongoing to improve the existing road between the end of the new highway at Shebandowan and Highway17 at
Shabaqua Corners. Initially this road was designated as
Highway120. In 1959, it was decided to make this new link a westward extension of Highway11. On April1, 1960, Highway11 assumed the route of Highway120; this consequently created a concurrency of Highway11 and 17 between Nipigon and west of Thunder Bay. Now reaching as far as Atikokan, construction of a road between there and Fort Frances was carried out over the next five years. The final link, the Noden Causeway over
Rainy Lake, was opened on June28, 1965, after which Highway11 was extended to Rainy River and the American border. Highway11 was now at its peak length of .
Lakehead Expressway In 1963, Charles MacNaughton, minister of the Department of Highways, announced plans for the Lakehead Expressway to be built on the western edge of the twin cities of Port Arthur and Fort William (which amalgamated in 1970 to form Thunder Bay). Plans called for a at-grade expressway from South of Arthur Street to meet Highway11 and Highway17 northeast of the cities. Work began in August 1965, with a contract for a section of divided highway on the west side of the twin cities. The first section of the expressway opened on August29, 1967, connecting Oliver Road (then part of
Highway 130) and Golf Links Road with Dawson Road (
Highway 102). By mid- to late 1969, the route had been extended to
Highway 527 northeast of the twin cities and to Highway11 and Highway17 (Arthur Street) at the
Harbour Expressway. By late 1970, the route had been extended southward from Arthur Street to Neebing Avenue / Walsh Street West. At this time, Highway11 and 17 and Highway61 were rerouted along the completed expressway. The old routes through Thunder Bay were redesignated as
Highway 11B/
17B and
Highway 61B.
Expansion and rerouting in
Toronto, mostly along
Yonge Street While Highway11 was extended farther north and west between the 1920s and 1960s, numerous projects took place along the sections between Barrie and Cochrane during that period to either realign the highway to improve the geometry, or to bypass built up areas. The largest bottleneck along the highway in the 1940s was between Washago and through Gravenhurst, where construction began in 1947 to realign between the two towns, including a new high-level bridge over the
Trent–Severn Waterway. The original bypass of Gravenhurst, along what is now Bethune Drive, opened in 1948, while reconstruction of the remainder of the route between Washago and Gravenhurst was completed in 1949. During that period, a two-lane bypass around Washago was built between 1954 and 1955. Similar bypasses were built between Barrie and North Bay over the next decade, which were later incorporated into the modern four-lane route. A bypass of Bracebridge opened July1, 1953. The North Bay bypass was completed in 1953, while bypasses of Emsdale and Powassan were completed 1956 and 1957, respectively. Construction of the Huntsville Bypass began in 1957; it opened November27, 1959. The original Callander Bypass, which is now divided into Callander Bay Drive and part of
Highway 94 also opened in October 1959. Further north, the Tri-Town Bypass, from
Gillies to north of New Liskeard, was opened on September18. The new route bypassed the towns of Cobalt, Haileybury and New Liskeard (the latter two which have since become part of
Temiskaming Shores). In several cases, the original route of Highway11 became a business route (Highway11B, see #Business routes) upon the completion of a bypass. Beginning in 1965 Highway11 was widened to a
divided four-lane route between Orillia and North Bay. Initially, this work began at the southern end and progressed northwards; work later began southwards from North Bay. The first section to be four-laned was north of Orillia, which was completed in October 1964, while the remaining north to Severn River was completed by the end of 1965. Construction continued north of Severn River, with a section—including a second bridge over the Severn River—opening as far north as
Kahshe Lake in October 1966. Construction on the next from Kahshe Lake to south of Gravenhurst began that year. The current bypass of Gravenhurst, crossing Gull Lake, was announced on March31, 1966, and construction began in the spring of 1967. The new bypass was completed and opened in late 1970. By 1971, Highway11 was a four lane divided highway from Orillia to the northern interchange with Bethune Drive in Gravenhurst, and work was underway on
twinning the highway between Gravenhurst and then-
Highway 117 (now
Highway 118), north of Bracebridge; That project was completed by 1974. Between then and 1979, widening was completed to north of
Highway 141 at Stephenson Road12 along the existing route of Highway11, and underway for another to the southern end of the Huntsville Bypass.
Downloading and four-laning Huntsville to Powassan In 1996 and 1997, the care (or rescinding of
Connecting Link agreements) of Highway11 from Barrie southwards, including all of Yonge Street, was transferred by the provincial government to county, regional, and city governments by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario as part of the
Mike Harris government's
Common Sense Revolution. This practice is called downloading, in that the financial burden will fall to a lower tier government. The entire of Highway11 within
York Region was transferred to the region on April1, 1996. This was followed up a year later with the transfer of of the highway within
Simcoe County south of Crown Hill on April1, 1997. Along with the name Yonge Street, the section in York Region is now York Regional Road1, while the section in Simcoe County is now mostly Simcoe County Road4. Within the Cities of Toronto and Barrie it is simply either Yonge Street or the sections of various streets the highway followed. By 1997, the four-laning of Highway11 reached to approximately north of Highway60, where an interchange was built in 1992, as well as from North Bay south to Powassan. A project to
twin the existing two lane highway between Powassan and McGillvray Creek opened in September 1997. This was followed in October 1999 with the opening of another of twinning from McGillvray Creek south to Hummel Line, north of
Trout Creek. In the early 2000s, several more sections were completed at both the north and south end of the remaining two lane highway. A section was opened in September 2001 north of the Huntsville Bypass to south of
Novar, mostly along a new alignment alongside the existing highway. On October3, 2002, the southbound lanes of the Trout Creek Bypass, a new alignment around that town, were opened, followed by the northbound lanes two weeks later. An additional of twinning was completed by the end of that year between Novar and south of Emsdale. A temporary one-lane
Bailey bridge, which opened two weeks after the incident, was constructed to carry traffic on the highway; due to the expected water levels on the Montreal River once ice and snow began to melt in the spring, however, a second temporary bridge then had to be constructed for the duration of the original bridge's reconstruction. According to the Ministry of Transportation's final report, the failure was caused by a
fatigue fracture of three steel hanger rods on the northwest side of the bridge. Following reconstruction, the bridge resumed service in 2005. Each hanger rod was replaced with four cable wires, to provide greater stability in the event of a wire failure. On October30, 2004, another of four-laning was opened between the south end of the Trout Creek Bypass and north of
South River. To the south, a bypass of Emsdale opened the week of October21, 2005, with a portion of the original Emsdale Bypass (constructed in 1956) This left a gap remaining to be four-laned; by 2009, construction was underway on . A section from south of
Burk's Falls to south of
Katrine was four-laned by late 2010, mostly along a new alignment. The Sundridge–South River Bypass opened to traffic on or about September20, 2011, along a new alignment. The final two projects, twinning the Burk's Falls Bypass and a new alignment alongside the existing highway between Burk's Falls and Sundridge, were completed and opened together on August8, 2012, completing the four laning between Barrie and North Bay. Overall, the project between Huntsville and Powassan required "16new interchanges, 54new bridges, 1.7million cubic meters of rock excavation, 10.5million cubic metres of earth excavation, 4.6million tonnes of granular material applied and 500,000tonnes of asphalt." The corridor was divided into four segments, and an
Environmental Study Report (ESR) was published for each in 1996 or 1997. While the MTO designated the corridor—a mix of twinning the existing highway and a new alignment—in 2003, The westbound lanes opened the weekend of August 6, 2011; the existing highway was then rebuilt as the eastbound lanes, and opened on August 17, 2012. An interchange at Hodder Avenue—the first in Northwestern Ontario—was included as part of this project By 2012, construction was already underway on two more contracts: A $46-million project to twin of the existing highway between Highway527 and west of Mackenzie Station Road that began in 2010, and another 12.3-kilometre project built along a new alignment east of that point to Birch Beach Road. The latter project was completed first, opening in July 2013, while the former was opened the week of September 29, 2014. Construction began in 2013 on a new four lane
cable-stayed bridge across the
Nipigon River, to replace the existing two lane bridge built in 1974. The southern span to carry the future westbound lanes was opened on November28, 2015, after which the old bridge closed. It was subsequently demolished to allow the construction of the northern span to carry eastbound traffic, which was scheduled for 2017. However, on January10, 2016, the bridge experienced a significant structural failure in which the deck raised , severing the only highway connection between eastern and western Canada. A single lane was reopened the following day and repairs began; both lanes were reopened on February25, 2016. The failure caused a significant delay in the construction of the northern span, which did not open until November23, 2018, The of approaches at each end were completed in 2019. Construction began on the former in October, and on the latter by the end of June. while the section from Red Rock Road No. 9 to Stillwater Creek was completed in September 2019. == Future ==