King's Highway 37, commonly referred to as Highway 37, is a
provincially maintained highway in the
Canadian province
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
of
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
. It begins at
Highway 401
King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one,
is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provin ...
in
Belleville and travels north to
Highway 7 in
Actinolite
Actinolite is an amphibole silicate mineral with the chemical formula .
Etymology
The name ''actinolite'' is derived from the Greek word ''aktis'' (), meaning "beam" or "ray", because of the mineral's fibrous nature.
Mineralogy
Actinolite is ...
. The route once continued south through Belleville to
Highway 62, but was truncated in 1998. Prior to the re-routing, Highway 37 was long.
Highway 37 was established in 1932 to provide one of several connections with the extension of Highway 7 between
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
and Ottawa that opened that year. Aside from several diversions around communities along its length, the route of Highway 37 has remained relatively unchanged since then. The only major settlement on the route between its termini is the
village of Tweed, located in the
Municipality of Tweed (the latter henceforth referred to as ''Tweed'' in this article).
Route description
![Aerial view of Tweed, ON - September 1, 1999](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Aerial_view_of_Tweed%2C_ON_-_September_1%2C_1999.jpg)
Highway 37 is a road between Highway 401 at Belleville and Highway 7 at Actinolite that serves as a shortcut between Toronto and Ottawa.
Lying entirely within Hastings County, the route travels parallel to the
Moira River
The Moira River is a river in Hastings County in eastern Ontario, Canada. It travels from its source in the centre of the county to the Bay of Quinte at the county seat Belleville .
Name
Originally named the Sagonaska River by the indigenous peo ...
throughout its length. Outside of the communities that it cuts through, the majority of surrounding land use is agricultural, though forest is dominant near the Moira River.
Traffic levels along Highway 37 taper gradually from south to north, and increase by approximately 144% in the summer months compared to winter months. On an
average day, 9,150 vehicles travel the route immediately north of Highway 401, and 3,150 vehicles travel the route north of the village of Tweed. These represent the heaviest and lightest travelled portions of the route, respectively.
Highway 37 begins at an interchange with Highway 401 (Exit 544), south of which it continues as Cannifton Road into downtown Belleville. North of Highway 401, the route curves to the northeast, bypassing the communities of
Cannifton and
Corbyville. After travelling past Honeywell Corners and Thrasher's Corners, it crosses the Moira River on O'Brien's Bridge and curves east then north, bypassing the communities of
Plainfield and
Latta. At
Roslin, the highway exits Belleville and briefly crosses into
Centre Hastings
The Municipality of Centre Hastings is a township in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in Hastings County. It was formed on January 1, 1998, through the amalgamation of Huntingdon Township with the Village of Madoc.
Communities
The municipality of Centr ...
, before straddling the boundary with Tweed north to
Thomasburg
Thomasburg is a municipality in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russi ...
. Bypassing east of the village, the route fully enters Tweed.
![Actinolite ON](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Actinolite_ON.jpg)
Highway 37 meanders northeasterly, bypassing the hamlet of
Chapman. It approaches
Stoco Lake
Stoco Lake is a lake in the Lake Ontario drainage basin in Tweed, Hastings County, Ontario, Canada.
The lake is about long and wide, and lies at an elevation of approximately . There are two named islands, Butternut Island and Grant Island, and ...
and turns north into the village of Tweed, where it is locally known as Victoria Street.
A segment through the village, between Jane Street and
Hastings County Road 39
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
(Sulphide Road), is maintained under a
Connecting Link
The Connecting Link program is a provincial subsidy provided to municipalities to assist with road construction, maintenance and repairs in the Canadian province of Ontario. Roads which are designated as ''connecting links'' form the portions of ...
agreement.
Crossing the Moira River once more and becoming Moira Street, the highway continues north out of the village alongside the river. After venturing through farmland for several kilometres, Highway 37 parallels the
Skootamatta River
The Skootamatta River is a river in the Lake Ontario drainage basin in Hastings and Lennox and Addington Counties in Ontario, Canada. It flows from Joeperry Lake to join the Moira River in Tweed. The river's name is thought to come from Ojibwa wo ...
into Actinolite, ending at Highway 7.
History
Prior to the early 1930s, transportation between Toronto and Ottawa was limited due to the few roads that permeated the
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...
between
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...
and the
Ottawa River
The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...
; at that time the only option was via Highway 2 and
Highway 16. The Ontario Department of Highways (DHO) set out to remedy this situation by extending Highway 7 east of Peterborough to
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
.
As part of the ensuing
depression-relief project, over 2700 men blasted rock,
dredged muskeg and endured a constant barrage of
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...
-
sucking
Suction is the colloquial term to describe the air pressure differential between areas.
Removing air from a space results in a pressure differential. Suction pressure is therefore limited by external air pressure. Even a perfect vacuum cannot ...
insects
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...
in order to construct the new highway,
which was opened to traffic on August 23, 1932.
During this timeframe, the DHO assumed ownership of several north–south routes to connect Highway 7 with Highway 2. On January 6, 1932, the Belleville–Actinolite Road was designated as Highway 37. The new route followed existing Hastings County roads.
Originally, Highway 37 began at Highway 14 (Front Street) in downtown Belleville, and followed Station Street and Cannifton Road north through the communities of Cannifton and Corbyville.
While this section was paved, the remainder of the highway was gravel-surfaced.
It was paved from Corbyville to Roslin between 1942 and 1946,
and from Tweed to Actinolite in 1945.
The remainder of Highway 37, from Roslin to Tweed, was paved between 1951 and 1953.
Within Tweed, Highway 37 originally followed Bridge Street and Moira Street until Victoria Street was extended north across the river in 1937.
O'Brien's Bridge over Moira River south of Plainfield collapsed in spring of 1945 when a truck struck it. Construction of a new bridge to the west of the old bridge as well as a diversion to connect with it began that summer,
and was completed the following year.
The adjacent communities of Cannifton and Corbyville were bypassed by a new alignment that opened in October 1960.
In 1968, a diversion around Plainfield and Latta was opened.
The interchange with Highway 401 was built beginning in 1955 as a
cloverleaf,
and opened along with the section of that highway between
Trenton and
Marysville on October 7, 1958.
The interchange was rebuilt in 1991 as a
parclo AB, with the ramps on the west side of Highway 37 being removed.
Major intersections
References
External links
Highway 37 - Length and Route
{{Ontario King's Highways
037
Transport in Belleville, Ontario