The history of the E.C. Row Expressway dates back to January 1963, when the City of Windsor and the
Department of Highways released a report called The Windsor Area Transportation Study (WATS). Properties were purchased along E.C. Row Avenue (named in 1956 after the retiring president of Chrysler Canada (1951-1956),
Ohio-born
E. C. Row The original plans for the expressway dating back to 1969 were for it to travel from current
County Road 22, heading west along the southern edge of
Belle River and
Tecumseh, meeting up with the current
two-lane freeway alignment (
Pike Creek Bypass) just east of
Puce, as well as having the west end continue south through
Lasalle to north of
Amherstburg. this work was completed in 1973. In 1976, contracts were awarded to extend the new divided expressway east to Walker Avenue. At the request of
Ford Motor Company of Canada, construction on the expressway was soon accelerated. By early 1980, the existing construction contracts were completed, and work began to connect the expressway between Huron Church Road and Dougall Avenue. Construction of a two-laned extension west to connect with the Ojibway Parkway (Highway 18) began by the end of that year. The expressway was opened between Central Avenue and
Lauzon Parkway on December19, 1980. The final section, connecting with Highway 2 as a
two lane expressway at Banwell Road, opened the week of May4, 1981. The unsignalised intersection with Shawnee Road was quickly recognised as a hazard. As a result, Westlake Drive was built and Shawnee closed at the expressway in late 1983. By April 1982, the four-laned expressway was complete between Huron Church Road and east of Lauzon Parkway, and with Ojibway Parkway via a two-lane expressway west of Huron Church Road. Following this, Highway 2 was rerouted west of Banwell Road off Tecumseth Road to instead travel along the expressway, while Highway 18 was rerouted off Sandwich Street to followed the expressway; both then followed Highway 3 along Huron Church Road to the Ambassador Bridge. Construction stalled for several years as funding was diverted from the project during a
recession in the early 1980s. It would take until 1987 for work to resume to replace the
at-grade intersections at Matchette Road, Malden Road, Huron Church Road and Dominion Boulevard. The City of Windsor nevertheless earmarked funding from their budget to build the last two of those interchanges in late 1986. The province later stepped in to provide a share of the funding in March 1987, and work began with contracts being awarded for construction on August 26 and September 16 of that year for interchanges at Dominion Boulevard and Huron Church Road, respectively. The City of Windsor also negotiated with the province for funding of an interchange at Matchette Road in late April of that year, which was approved by September 1. On September 29, 1988, the Huron Church Road and Dominion Boulevard interchanges were opened to traffic. Work began in October 1989 to twin the existing two-laned route between the Ojibway Parkway and Huron Church Road by building a second parallel roadway to serve as the eastbound lanes. Construction of a partial interchange at Matchette Road as well as an overpass of Malden Road was included in this project, which was completed in September 1990. The project to complete the expressway in the east — by twinning the route between Lauzon Parkway and the Windsor boundary east of Banwell Road — began immediately after; it was completed in late 1991. The overall cost of the expressway between Ojibway Parkway and Banwell Road, originally estimated (in 1967) at $55 million, was $115 million, out of which the province contributed $94 million. However, budget constraints brought on by a recession in the early 1990s resulted in the
Mike Harris provincial government forming the
Who Does What? committee to determine cost-cutting measures in order to balance the budget after a deficit incurred under premier
Bob Rae. It was determined that many Ontario highways no longer served long-distance traffic movement and should, therefore, be maintained by local or regional levels of government. The MTO consequently
transferred many highways to lower levels of government in 1997 and 1998, removing a significant percentage of the provincial highway network. As the E. C. Row Expressway was designed to serve commuter traffic in Windsor, and not province-wide movement, the route was transferred to the City of Windsor on April 1, 1997. No work has progressed on the extension since. The project was completed on November 21, 2015 and allows E.C. Row traffic to connect with the bridge-bound portion of Highway 401 via slip ramps located east of Machete Road. The E.C. Row still lacks direct access to the London-bound portion of Highway 401, however, the completion of phase one of the Highway 401 extension (Herb Gray Parkway) means that the indirect connection using Huron Church Road has been reduced to a short distance (with one traffic light) between the Parclo A4 interchange with the E.C. Row and the slip ramps with Highway 401. In 2015, construction began on the widening and expansion of E.C. Row's eastern extension, County Road 22. The highway was widened to four lanes from Banwell Road to E Puce Road (County Road 25) in
Puce. As of 2018, this project has been completed and includes a roundabout at the intersection of County Road 22 and Old Tecumseh Road. In September 2025, work began on replacing the at-grade intersection with Banwell Road. In anticipation of increased traffic demands from the newly built NextStar Energy battery plant, the intersection will be replaced with a Parclo A2 interchange. Additionally, the stretch of Banwell Road from Wildwood Drive to the CPKC mainline will have capacity increased from 2 to 4 lanes to compliment previous upgrades to the corridor. Construction is estimated to be completed in 2027-2028. == Exit list ==