King's Highway 39, commonly referred to as Highway 39, was a
provincially maintained highway in 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 ...
. The -long route connected
Highway 3 in downtown
Windsor
Windsor may refer to:
Places Australia
* Windsor, New South Wales
** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area
* Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland
**Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...
with
Highway 2 south of
Belle River, travelling along the southern shoreline of
Lake St. Clair
Lake St. Clair (french: Lac Sainte-Claire) is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day ...
. Highway 39 was established in 1934. By 1961, the
Pike Creek Bypass was opened and Highway 39 was rerouted along it, with the former route briefly becoming Highway39B. The route was renumbered as Highway 2 in 1970, retiring the designation from the provincial highway system. Highway 2 was itself
decommissioned along the former route of Highway 39 on January 1, 1998, and transferred to
Essex County and the City of Windsor. It was subsequently redesignated as Essex County Road 22.
Route description
Highway39 began in downtown Windsor at the intersection of Ouellette Avenue and Riverside Drive. That intersection also served as the terminus for
Highway 3B and
Highway 98; Highway2 continued through the intersection to the
Detroit–Windsor tunnel
The Detroit–Windsor tunnel (french: tunnel de Détroit-Windsor), also known as the Detroit–Canada tunnel, is an international highway tunnel connecting the cities of Detroit, Michigan, United States and Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is the ...
. All four routes travelled
concurrently southeast along Ouellette Avenue to Tecumseh Road, at which point Highway3B branched west along that road while the others turned east. At Howard Avenue, Highway39 continued east while Highway2 and Highway98 turned south.
Highway39 jogged south from Tecumseh Road to the Pike Creek Bypass at Banwell Road, gradually curving east onto it along what is now Mulberry Drive;
the Pike Creek Bypass was connected to the E.C. Row Expressway when it was extended east to Shawnee Road in May 1981.
It followed the bypass south of the community of Pike Creek, crossing over the creek of the same name and passing south of the
J.P. Wiser's Whisky
Established in 1857, J.P. Wiser's Whisky is one of Canada's oldest continuously produced Canadian whiskeys. Hiram Walker & Sons Limited currently produces it at their Windsor, Ontario, . Since 1935, J.P. Wiser's has been the majority shareholder ...
storage facility.
After paralleling along the south side of a
Canadian National
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...
rail line, Highway39 returned onto Tecumseh Road. Following the southern shoreline of Lake St. Clair, it crossed over the Puce River and through the communities of Puce and Emeryville. Becoming Notre Dame Street, the highway travelled through the town of Belle River and crossed the river of the same name. Exiting the town, the route crossed Duck Creek then curved south alongside it. After passing over a
Canadian Pacific
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
rail line, it ended at an intersection with Highway2, which continued east to
Tilbury
Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a 16th century fort and an ancie ...
.
History
Assumption
Highway39 was one of several provincial highways intended to funnel traffic from the border crossings in Windsor through Essex County.
The concept for a "Blue Water Highway" along the shores of the
Detroit River
The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively refe ...
, Lake St. Clair and thenceforth to
Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
alongside the
Thames River
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
was first made by the town of Belle River in 1927.
Noting that the route was already paved,
this premise was presented to the Department of Highways (DHO), predecessor to the modern
Ministry of Transportation
A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...
, multiple times over the next several years,
with the province opting instead to build and improve the Provincial Road (now Essex County Road46),
and later the Base Line Road (now Essex County Road42).
Despite this, the highway along Tecumseh Road and the lakefront continued to be lobbied for by local merchants and governments into the 1930s.
The DHO finally agreed to take over the route, assuming control over of roads through
Maidstone
Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...
,
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
and
Sandwich East townships on July11, 1934. The new highway began at the Windsor–
Ford City boundary at Drouillard Road, and proceeded east along Tecumseh Road; the sections through the towns of Tecumseh and Belle River were designated as
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 ...
s.
Within Windsor, the highway was signed along local roads (Tecumseh Road and Ouellette Avenue) to the Detroit–Windsor tunnel.
In 1939, several renumberings took place in Essex County. Following pressure by the Essex County Automobile Club to number all three highways between Windsor and Tilbury with the number 2,
Highway39 was redesignated as Highway2B in January.
Two months later, the province instituted a change to its "numbering" policy in which lettered suffixes would only be used for
short feeder routes and not for long distance routes. Consequently, Highway2B became Highway39 again, effective March18.
Tecumseh Bypass
Traffic levels increased over the following decades, with two
at-grade At-grade may refer to:
* At-grade intersection, a crossing between roads on the same level
* Road junction
*Level crossing, where a road or path crosses a railway on the same level
* Diamond crossing, where two railway tracks cross
* At-grade railwa ...
crossings of the
Michigan Central Railroad
The Michigan Central Railroad (reporting mark MC) was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit, Michigan, and St. Joseph, Michigan. The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois in ...
becoming the site of frequent deadly accidents. In August 1951, the towns of Tecumseh and Belle River petitioned the DHO to construct a bypass along the south side of the tracks, avoiding both crossings.
The DHO opted to install
automated signals and gates instead. The towns made a second request in March 1955,
to which the DHO agreed to conduct a survey into the need for a bypass that summer.
Plans were developed for the highway over the following years, including a proposal to connect the bypass with the proposed
E. C. Row Avenue extension in 1957.
The western end of Highway39 was expanded from two to four lanes from Jefferson Avenue to Tecumseh in 1957 and 1958.
In April 1958, the DHO announced that it would proceed with constructing the bypass, as it was not possible to widen the existing highway through Tecumseh.
Concurrent with construction of the new bypass, which began in the fall of 1959, the highway was widened through Belle River.
The existing route through Tecumseh and Pike Creek was rehabilitated as part of the work.
The Highway39 Bypass was opened the week of November20, 1961.
The provincial portion of the former route through Tecumseh, east of Manning Road, became Highway39B briefly before being decommissioned on August10, 1962.
As part of a larger reorganisation of highways in Essex County following the completion of
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 ...
, Highway2 west of the Highway39 intersections near Belle River was transferred to Essex County on June1, 1970.
Consequently, Highway39 was renumbered as a continuation of Highway2 into Windsor.
Major intersections
See also
*
List of numbered roads in Essex County
The numbered roads in Essex County account for of roads in the Canadian province of Ontario.
These roads include King's Highways that are signed and maintained by the province, as well as county roads under the jurisdiction of the Essex County xx ...
References
{{Windsor, Ontario roads
County roads in Essex County, Ontario
039
39 may refer to:
* 39 (number), the natural number following 38 and preceding 40
* one of the years:
** 39 BC
** AD 39
** 1939
** 2039
* ''39'' (album), a 2000 studio album by Mikuni Shimokawa
* "'39", a 1975 song by Queen
* "Thirty Nine", a song ...