Grand Marais Road ( French for "Big Marsh Road") is a road that travels through

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

. Its use and significance has dwindled considerably following the completion of the E.C. Row Expressway.

History

The intersection with

Walker Road Walker Road is one of the busiest roads in Windsor, Ontario. It has an average annual daily traffic (AADT) level of 32,000 cars per day at the CP Rail crossing. History The road is named after Hiram Walker, distillery baron. The CP Rail cros ...

is the site where the Tornado of 1946 touched down for a second time and reached its peak intensity of F4. Grand Marais Road used to be in one piece, linking

Huron Church Road King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the northern shoreline of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which travels from t ...

in the southwest with Pillette Road in the east, following Turkey Creek fairly closely (hence the name "Big Marsh Road"). Once E.C. Row Expressway was constructed, parts of the road were closed off and torn up. They are listed below, heading westbound: *Just east of the intersection with Plymouth Drive and

, Grand Marais Road turns quickly south to meet Plymouth (which was intended to handle through traffic towards the east end of Windsor in the 1970s), with two lanes being closed off and used as a parking space for residents nearby. The pavement on the northernmost two westbound lanes is much older than the rest, showing evidence of this (despite one lane being torn up and grassed over, a sidewalk being laid down along the road...) * Intersection with

, east-bound-only traffic could exit the road. Memorial Drive to the north is now a bike trail. nearby residential streets allow access for drivers wanting to continue along Grand Marais Rd. In the early 2000s, the eastbound-only portion of Grand Marais Rd. was completely closed off. * West of Howard Avenue, the road leads to Zalev's

Scrap Yard Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...

. It used to meet the tracks at a

grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...

, until E.C. Row Expressway's bridges were constructed. The road was truncated to Zalev's in the east, and is now a driveway to the

shopping plaza A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to ref ...

to the west. It continues as West Grand Boulevard following Turkey Creek very closely through built-up residential areas, with signs leading drivers back to Grand Marais Road (which it parallels closely as well). * At the Dougall Road interchange with E.C. Row Expressway, the road's traffic is diverted onto Bruce Avenue (a quiet residential street), while a small segment of the road continues to a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

. it was closed when the interchange's cloverleaf ramps were built in the late 1960s, due to how close the road is to the ramps. From Bruce Avenue, the road continues much as it did before the expressway was built, with

bike lane Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor v ...

s along much of its path to its terminus with Huron Church Road.

Today

The road is lightly used, and is a

collector road A collector road or distributor road is a low-to-moderate-capacity road which serves to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collector roads are designed to provide access to residential properties. Rarely, juris ...

that feeds major

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 ...

s nearby. It travels through several residential neighbourhoods, such as South Windsor.

West Grand Boulevard

West Grand Boulevard is a derivative street that parallels Grand Marais (located just north of Turkey Creek) between Huron Church Road and Dougall Avenue. The road ranges from a collector road to a

driveway A driveway (also called ''drive'' in UK English) is a type of private road for local access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and maintained by an individual or group. Driveways rarely have traffic lights, but some that bear ...

, a

bike path A bike path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses ''shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or "Class III bikewa ...

and a

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick ...

. The road is discontinuous in sections, linked by trails and sidewalks. The road changes sides (from the south bank to the north bank) near Rankin Avenue (a residential street), with the street on the south bank named "West Grand Court".

External links

Amherstburg town website

{{Roads in Windsor, Ontario Streets in Windsor, Ontario

History

Today

West Grand Boulevard

See also

Former Provincial Highways

External links