Merivale Road is an arterial road in the west end of

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

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 ...

, Canada. It starts at

Island Park Drive Island Park Drive is an important and scenic north-south thoroughfare in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with a length of about 4 km. It is one of several parkways in Ottawa administered by the National Capital Commission providing scenic routes throughout ...

just north of Highway 417 and continues south until it ends at

Prince of Wales Drive Prince of Wales Drive ( Ottawa Road #73) is a road serving Ottawa, Ontario, named after the eponymous road in Battersea, London, U.K. The northern section is a low-speed street running along the west bank of the Rideau River, while southern por ...

in Rideau Glen. South of Clyde Avenue, Merivale is known as Ottawa Road #17, while north of Clyde it is Ottawa Road #63. From Island Park Drive to

Carling Avenue Carling Avenue is a major east–west arterial road in the west end of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from March Road in Kanata to Bronson Avenue in the Glebe. The road is named for John Carling, founder of Carling Brewery and Conservative M ...

the road is as a small collector route, passing the Westgate Shopping Centre. South of Carling Avenue it is a minor

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...

that goes through the

Carlington Carlington is a neighbourhood located in River Ward in the west-end of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The community association boundaries are Clyde Avenue to the west, Carling Avenue and the Queensway to the north, Fisher Avenue to the east and th ...

residential neighborhood. It passes just west of the Central Experimental Farm, land owned by the federal

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

. South of

Baseline Road Baseline Road may refer to: ;United States *Baseline Road (Arizona) in Phoenix *Baseline Road (Colorado) in Boulder *Baseline Road (Southern California) *M-102 (Michigan highway) in Southeast Michigan ;Canada *Baseline Road (Ottawa) in Ontario *Bas ...

, Merivale Road turns (it is actually the continuation of Clyde Avenue and

Maitland Avenue Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...

) and becomes a major arterial route through a commercial district that contains several major malls, dozens of restaurants and radio and former CTV broadcast facilities ( CJOH-TV, building structure was badly damaged by fire in 2010 and the building was demolished in 2011). During the 1950s through the 1990s prior to the City of

Nepean Nepean may refer to: Places Australia *Nepean Bay, a bay in South Australia, **Nepean Bay Conservation Park, a protected area in South Australia, **Nepean Bay, South Australia, a locality *Nepean Highway, Victoria *Nepean Island (Norfolk Island) ...

's amalgamation with the city of Ottawa, this area of Merivale Road formed the largest commercial shopping district within the city of Nepean and a major shopping area for the National Capital region. During the 1950s and 1960s several major department stores, such as

Towers A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

Miracle Mart Miracle Mart was a chain of discount department stores with locations in Ontario and Quebec, Canada based in Saint-Laurent, Quebec. The chain was renamed to simply M in the mid-1980s. History The company was founded in early 1961 as Miracle Mart ...

Pascals The pascal (symbol: Pa) is the unit of pressure in the International System of Units (SI), and is also used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus, and ultimate tensile strength. The unit, named after Blaise Pascal, is defined ...

, and

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

, were located along Merivale Road along with major Canadian grocery chains such as Steinberg's and

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

. The late 1970s saw the building of

Merivale Mall Merivale Mall is an indoor mall located at 1642 Merivale Road in the Nepean district of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The mall opened in 1976 and is bordered by Viewmount Drive to the south and Merivale Road to the east. It's an approximate 20-minute d ...

at the intersection of Merivale and Viewmount Drive on the site of a former farm house and farm lands. It was home to a

Woolco Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its ...

at the south end of the mall, one of its anchor stores. The building of the

Meadowlands Mall Meadowlands or The Meadowlands may refer to: Places United States Minnesota * Meadowlands, Minnesota, a city in Minnesota * Meadowlands Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota, a township in Minnesota New Jersey * Meadowlands Rail Line, a New Jers ...

at the intersection of Merivale Road and Meadowlands Road took place around this time, before it contained large box stores. This area of Merivale Road also leads to the City of Nepean's first experiment in promoting industrial development through the creation of industrial parks. The Colonnade Road Industrial Park at the intersection of Merivale and Colonnade lies just to the south of Viewmount Road and is/was the location for branches, production facilities and headquarters of many large high tech companies such as

Gandalf Technologies Gandalf Technologies, or simply Gandalf, was a Canadian data communications company based in Ottawa. It was best known for modems and terminal adapters that allowed computer terminals to connect to host computers through a single interface. G ...

, and

Mitel Mitel Networks Corporation is a Canadian telecommunications company. The company previously produced TDM PBX systems and applications, but after a change in ownership in 2001, now focuses almost entirely on Voice-over-IP (VoIP) products. Mitel ...

as well as

OC Transpo OC Transpo, officially the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, is the public transit agency for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It operates an integrated hub-and-spoke system including light metro, bus rapid transit, convention ...

's south west garage facilities. Through the 1980s it was also home to Ottawa's largest Flea Market at the time, the

Colonnade Flea Market In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

(the Flea Market has since been renamed to the Bentley Flea Market and relocated further south on Merivale to 7 Cleopatra Drive). During the 1990s another major commercial area was developed further south on Merivale road located at the intersection of

Hunt Club Road Hunt Club Road, also known as Ottawa Road 32, is a major east–west route in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It originally ran from a dead end east of Bank Street to the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club; later, there were many extensions due to the 1970s ho ...

. This was precipitated by the extension of the Hunt Club Road west across the

Rideau River The Rideau River (french: Rivière Rideau) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writin ...

creating a new intersection with Merivale Road in what used to be a rural farming field. This area includes various national retailers such as

Canadian Tire Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited is a Canadian retail company which operates in the automotive, hardware, sports, leisure and housewares sectors. Its Canadian operations include: Canadian Tire (including Canadian Tire Petroleum gas stations a ...

Petsmart PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...

, Rona,

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...

and

the Brick The Brick Ltd. is a Canadian retailer of furniture, mattresses, appliances and home electronics. The company was founded as The Brick Warehouse LP by brothers, John, Fred, and Bill Comrie. The first warehouse opened on September 1, 1971 in E ...

as well as various restaurant chains such as

Boston Pizza Boston Pizza (BP), known as Boston's The Gourmet Pizza Restaurant and Sports Bar outside of Canada, is a Canadian multinational restaurant chain that owns and franchises locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico. History Boston Pizza ...

and Eastside Mario's, fast food places such as

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

and A&W, car dealerships, workout gyms and smaller specialty stores. South of Hunt Club Road, Merivale runs through an industrial district with many small businesses which during the 1970s and 1980s was the second location for intense industrial development led by the City of Nepean. This area also contains extensive petroleum storage facilities, and brownfield sites where such facilities once stood. South of the intersection of Merivale and Slack Road, Merivale passes the neighbourhoods of Pineglen and

Country Place Country Place is a residential neighbourhood near the geographical centre of Ottawa, Canada in Knoxdale-Merivale Ward. Prior to 2001, it was part of the former city of Nepean. It is a mature residential subdivision with about 400 houses located ju ...

and then crosses the

greenbelt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which h ...

; an area protected from further urban development. South of this Merivale, passes through Rideau Glen, part of the growing subdivision of

Barrhaven Barrhaven is a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located about southwest of the city's downtown core. Prior to amalgamation with Ottawa in 2001, Barrhaven was part of the City of Nepean. Its population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 103, ...

Speed limits

Speed limits vary throughout this long stretch: * Between Island Park Drive and the Central Experimental Farm, the speed limit is 50 km/h. * Between the Central Experimental Farm and MacFarlane Road in the industrial district the speed limit is 60 km/h. * A small section afterwards has a speed limit of 50 km/h while the rest of the road from north of

Fallowfield Road Barrhaven is a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located about southwest of the city's Downtown Ottawa, downtown core. Prior to amalgamation with Ottawa in 2001, Barrhaven was part of the City of Nepean, Ontario, Nepean. Its population as ...

to Prince of Wales Drive the speed limit is 80 km/h.

Bus routes

Merivale Road is well served by

bus service as follows: * Route 53 travels between Summerville Avenue and Kirkwood Avenue during Westbound trips, and between Caldwell Avenue and Summerville Avenue during Eastbound trips. * Route 80 travels between

and Leiken Drive, though some Monday-Friday trips do not travel between MacFarlane Road and Leiken Drive. * Route 81 travels between Caldwell Avenue and Central Park Drive, and again between Central Park Drive and Clyde Avenue. * Route 83 travels between Viewmount Drive and Woodfield Drive. * Route 89 travels between Viewmount Drive and Colonnade Road. * Route 96 travels between Viewmount Drive and MacFarlane Road, though some Saturday/Sunday trips do not travel between

and MacFarlane Road. * Route 186 travels between Meadowlands Drive and Slack Road during peak hours Monday-Friday only. * Route 187 travels between Slack Road and Amberwood Crescent during peak hours Monday-Friday only. * Route 199 travels between

and Leiken Drive during peak hours Monday-Friday only.

Major intersections

* Kirkwood Avenue *

* Clyde Avenue * Meadowlands Drive *

Future

There are plans to widen this road to four lanes from MacFarlane Road to Fallowfield Road in the future due to the increasing size of

. {{Ottawa Roads Roads in Ottawa