Ontario Highway 5

Former Ontario provincial highway

Highway5 followed a significant piece of Dundas Street (historically also called The Governor's Road), one of two routes constructed under the orders of John Graves Simcoe during his short tenure as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, the other being Yonge Street. The route was designated as part of the provincial highway system in 1920 and numbered as Highway5 in 1925. Initially it travelled from Toronto to Clappison's Corners before turning south and following what would later become Highway6 south through Hamilton and onwards to Jarvis. It was redirected west from Clappison's Corners to Peters Corners in 1927, and later to Paris in 1931. Highway5 was quickly engulfed by the growing outer suburbs of Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s, which led to various portions being transferred to local jurisdiction (though still signed as connecting links) over the years. The portions within Metropolitan Toronto were transferred in 1954, followed by portions through Mississauga in 1971, 1978 and 1991. By the 1990s, the provincially maintained route only extended as far east as Highway 403; it was shortened to its present length in 1998.

Highway5 serves as a short connector between Highway8 in the west and Highway6 in the east, and is essentially a continuation of Highway8. This configuration comes as a result of the truncation of both highways by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO). The removed sections were transferred to the jurisdiction of the City of Toronto, the City of Mississauga, Halton Region, the City of Hamilton, the County of Brant, and Oxford County on January1, 1998. Prior, Highway5 followed two segments of Dundas Street between Toronto and Paris. The current route of Highway5 is almost entirely straight and rural. It passes immediately to the north of the Niagara Escarpment, a World Biosphere Reserve. South of the escarpment, at the western tip of Lake Ontario, is the Dundas district of Hamilton, which was once a separate town within the former Hamilton Wentworth Region. It is between Peters Corners and Clappison's Corners. Highway5 begins at a roundabout at the southern end of Highway8 and the northern end of former Highway 52 in Peters Corners. To the west, the road is now Hamilton Road5 (which the highway is now designated as beyond both ends of its remaining length through Hamilton). It proceeds westwards towards Paris. Proceeding east, it crosses a ravine, divides a large woodlot and passes through agricultural lands. It crosses Spencer Creek as it approaches Brock Road. Spencer Creek plunges over the nearby escarpment at Webster's Falls. Highway5 then passes through a rural residential area and returns to a farmland setting. It passes through the rural hamlet of Rock Chapel, and then curves to the left on its final approach to Highway6. East of Highway6, the road continues as the eastern section of Hamilton Road 5, and becomes Dundas Street. The MTO still maintains a portion of Dundas Street at the Highway407 interchange in Burlington, a portion at the Highway403 interchange on the Oakville–Mississauga boundary, and a portion at the Highway427 interchange in Toronto.

When the Department of Public Highways of Ontario (DPHO) began taking over the responsibility of roads in 1917, it did not assign route numbers. Highways were instead initially referred to by the major cities they connected. What would become Provincial Highway5 during the summer of 1925 was initially known as the Hamilton–Jarvis Highway and the Dundas Highway. Throughout the summer of 1920, several roads were taken over by the DPHO through Haldimand County, Wentworth County, Halton County, Peel County and York County. Within Haldimand County, the road between Jarvis and north of Caledonia was taken over (or assumed) by the province on June24, 1920. Another set of roads were assumed through Wentworth on July8, connecting with the portion in Haldimand County, through Hamilton to Clappison's Corners and east through Waterdown along Dundas Street. Within Peel, through what is now Mississauga, Dundas Street was assumed on July22. A portion within York County was assumed through Etobicoke from its western boundary as far east as the village of Islington on July29. A final segment of Dundas Street, within Halton from Waterdown to what is now Winston Churchill Boulevard, was assumed on July31. Portions of the route through Caledonia, Hagersville, Jarvis and Hamilton were not assumed by the DPHO. Danforth Avenue did not continue east of Warden Avenue at this time, and so the DPHO constructed a new railway overpass and extended the route to Kingston Road, opening in 1925. Within Wentworth County, the construction of the Clappison Cut through the Niagara Escarpment was underway by 1921, with the aim of bypassing the winding old route that is known today as Old Guelph Road. The Clappison Cut was completed and paved in 1924. The route was extended further west in 1930, when the newly renamed Department of Highways (DHO) assumed the road from Highway8 at Peters Corners to Highway24 west of St. George, as well as the Governor's Road between Highway24 and Highway2 at Paris. The road between Highway8 and Highway24, through Beverley and South Dumfries was designated on June18, while the section of the Governor's Road, along the boundary between South Dumfries and Brantford Township, was designated several months later on September24. These two segments were connected by a concurrency with Highway24. This brought the length of the route to , including the approximately of Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue between Jane Street and Sibley Avenue, within the Toronto city limits.

When the Hamilton–Jarvis Highway and Dundas Street were assumed by the province, they were paved from Islington village west to Summerville (near Dixie Road), but were otherwise gravel throughout. The route was paved between Mount Hope and Hamilton, between Sixteen Mile Creek and Summerville, as well as along Bloor Street from Islington village to Jane Street in 1921. New bridges were also completed over Sixteen Mile Creek and Mimico Creek. When the portion of Highway5 west of Clappison's Corners was assumed in 1927, it was already paved as far west as the Brock Road, approximately However, the DPHO (Department of Public Highways, Ontario) paved the entire length between Peters Corners and Clappison's Corners in 1928. When the province assumed the remainder of the route to Paris, it began paving the highway west from Peters Corners. Paving was completed for to Troy in 1930 and 1931;
another 10km were completed from Troy to Highway24 in 1932, including a railway underpass at St. George. The final east from Paris to Highway24 were paved in 1933. Within Scarborough, the DHO began a project to widen Kingston Road to a dual highway in the mid 1930s, which would ultimately result in the construction of the first segment of Highway 401. This construction began at the intersection of Highway2 and Highway5 and proceeded northwest. At the intersection of the two highways, the DHO constructed a new grade separation around the Scarborough Cenotaph beginning in 1936.
the overpass, carrying eastbound traffic from Danforth Avenue onto eastbound Kingston Road, was completed in 1938, though landscaping continued into 1939. This junction remains in place today, almost unchanged since then. As suburbanization of Toronto encroached on Toronto Township—which would become the town of Mississauga in 1968—the DHO began to widen Highway5 to four lanes across Peel and Halton in the 1960s, beginning with the section between Highway10 at Cooksville and Mississauga Road in 1961. In the late 1970s, construction began on Highway403 through Mississauga. As part of this new freeway, an interchange with Highway5 was built just east of Ninth Line, on the Oakville–Mississauga boundary. The interchange opened along with the segment of Highway403 south to the Queen Elizabeth Way at Ford Drive in mid 1981; the freeway was extended north to Erin Mills Parkway on November17th of that year.