Secondary Highway 560, commonly referred to as Highway 560, is a provincially maintained secondary highway in the northern section of the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province 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 in the west at an intersection with Highway 144 and the

Sultan Industrial Road The Sultan Industrial Road, also sometimes unofficially known as Ramsey Industrial Road, is a public–private forest access road in the Canadian province of Ontario. Originally built as a resource route for E. B. Eddy's logging and lumber operat ...

and proceeds east to Highway 11 at

Englehart Englehart (Canada 2016 Census population 1,479) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located on the Blanche River in the Timiskaming District. Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park is located near the town of Englehart. History The Town ...

. Highway560 was established, along with many of the secondary highways in Ontario, in 1956. It was extended westward to

Ontario Highway 144 King's Highway 144, commonly referred to as Highway 144, is a provincially maintained highway in the northern portion of the Canadian province of Ontario, linking the cities of Greater Sudbury and Timmins. The highway is one of the most isolate ...

in 1965. Aside from minor realignments along its isolated route, the route has remained unchanged since then.

Route description

Highway560 is a remote route through some of the most isolated parts of

Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timiska ...

, spanning between Highway144, where the road continues west as the Sultan Industrial Road, and Highway11 at Englehart. There are few gas stations and services located along the route, which is heavily travelled by

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

trucks; warning signs are posted along the route as a reminder of this hazard. The first of the route is relatively straight, though like the rest of the highway, there are few signs of habitation along its journey through thick

forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

in 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 ...

; the hamlet of

Ostrom Ostrom or Öström is a Swedish surname meaning "island stream". Many of the Ostroms in North America are descendants of a Dutch immigrant to New Amsterdam in the 1600's. The name was van Oosteroom and originated in the area of Utrecht and sever ...

is an exception to this. At Morin Village, the spur route Highway560A branches southwest to the village of Westree. Highway560 meanders around several lakes dotting the remainder of its journey to Englehart, serving the communities of Shining Tree and

Gowganda Gowganda is a Dispersed Rural Community and unincorporated place in geographic Nicol Township, Timiskaming District, in northeastern Ontario, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend ...

along its twisting route. It also provides access to the

West Montreal River Provincial Park West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

at two locations west of Gowganda. Within this vast uninhabited region, Highway560 is the closest public road to the highest point in Ontario,

Ishpatina Ridge Ishpatina Ridge is the highest point of land in the Canadian province of Ontario, at an estimated above sea level. Ishpatina Ridge rises approximately above the immediate area. It was only truly recognized as Ontario's highest point after topog ...

.The Atlas of Canada
At Elk Lake, the route provides access to Makobe - Grays River Provincial Park and then meets Highway 65, with which it shares a concurrency. It continues another through dense forests before suddenly emerging into the

Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben The Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben (also known as the Ottawa Graben) is a geological structure that coincides with a wide topographic depression extending from near Montréal through Ottawa. It is part of the Saint Lawrence rift system that also includ ...

. The remaining of Highway560 travels through agricultural lands, as well as the community of Charlton (where it intersects Highway 573), before ending at Highway11 on the western edge of Englehart. Like other provincial routes in Ontario, Highway560 is maintained by the

Ministry of Transportation of Ontario The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is the provincial ministry of the Government of Ontario that is responsible for transport infrastructure and related law in Ontario. The ministry traces its roots back over a century to the 1890s, when the pro ...

. In 2016, traffic surveys conducted by the ministry showed that on

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

, 1,100vehicles used the highway daily along the section between Highway11 and Highway573 (Bay Street) while 180vehicles did so each day along the section between the latter and Highway65, the highest and lowest counts along the highway, respectively.

Highway 560A

Highway560A is a secondary highway which serves as a short spur route from Highway560 southwest to the railway

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

in the community of Westree. Its total length is . Based on the metrics provided in the section above, an average of 190vehicles traverse the highway each day.

History

Highway560 was first designated in early 1956, like many of the secondary highways in Ontario. It initially provided the only access into the interior of the Temagami region and Gogama. However, in the mid-1960s, work began on a new link between Sudbury and

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

. was absorbed into the route of Highway144 in April 1965. Since then, the western terminus of Highway560 has been at Highway144. Although numerous minor realignments have been made to the route over the years, the general alignment of the highway has remained unchanged.

Major intersections

The following table lists the major junctions along Highway 560. {, class="wikitable" style="width:100%;" , - !scope="col", Division !scope="col", Location !scope="col", km !scope="col", Destinations !scope="col", Notes , - , colspan="5" align="center", continues west as the

, - , rowspan="3", Sudbury , , 0.0 , , , - , Morin Village , 31.0 , , , - , , 41.7 , , Opikimimk River Bridge , - , rowspan="5", Timiskaming ,

, 100.9 , , Gowganda Creek Bridge , - , rowspan="2", Elk Lake , 143.1 , , Beginning of Highway 65 concurrency , - , 144.1 , , End of Highway 65 concurrency , - , Charlton , 174.7 , , , - ,

, 183.9 , , Trans-Canada Highway

References

External links

Highway 560 at OntHighways.com
{{Ontario Secondary Highways 560 Roads in Sudbury District Roads in Timiskaming District