Secondary Highway 634, commonly referred to as Highway 634, is a remote highway in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

that connects Highway 11 in

Smooth Rock Falls Smooth Rock Falls is an incorporated town in the Cochrane District in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, with a population of 1,330 at the 2016 census. Geography and transportation The town lies on the Mattagami River and on Highway 11. The next fu ...

to the

Abitibi Canyon Generating Station Abitibi Canyon Generating Station is a hydroelectric power plant owned by Ontario Power Generation on the Abitibi River. The station is located 80 km north of Smooth Rock Falls, within Pitt Township in Northern Unorganized Cochrane Distric ...

in the community of

Abitibi Canyon, Ontario Abitibi Canyon was a community on the Abitibi River in northeastern Ontario, Canada. Abitibi Canyon was part of Northern Unorganized Cochrane District, in Cochrane District. It was located northeast of Fraserdale. History The construction of th ...

. It is the second highway in

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 C ...

to be designated Highway 634, with the original Highway 634 being near Sudbury. The current routing was at first designated as Highway 807, but was renumbered in 1977. The road was re-aligned around the eastern part of Smooth Rock Falls in the mid-1990s. As of 2019, the entire route is paved. Services along the route are only available within Smooth Rock Falls. Two additional communities exist along Highway 634: Brownrigg and

Fraserdale Fraserdale is an unincorporated place and Railroad switch, railroad point in Cochrane, Unorganized, North Part, Ontario, Unorganized Cochrane, North Part in Cochrane District, Ontario, Cochrane District, Northern Ontario, Northern Ontario, Canada ...

Route description

Highway 634 is an isolated bush highway that connects Highway 11 in the community of Smooth Rock Falls with the Abitibi Canyon hydroelectric dam. The road is in length. Like most other two-lane roads in Ontario, the

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expre ...

is 80 km/h (50 mph) although there are sections where such a speed cannot be maintained. As of 2019, the entire route is paved. The route passes through the community of Brownrigg along its otherwise isolated route through the Canadian Shield within thick

Boreal Forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

. At

, drivers must turn northeast to reach the Abitibi Canyon Generating Station. Highway 634 ends at the western edge of the dam; the locally maintained Otter Rapids Road continues west of there. A forest road also travels west from Fraserdale to the community of Smokey Falls. Like other provincial routes in Ontario, Highway 634 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 ...

. In 2010, traffic surveys conducted by the ministry along a lone section of the route 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 ...

, 120 vehicles used the highway daily between the northern outskirts of Smooth Rock Falls and Fraserdale.

History

The Highway 634 designation has existed along two routes. The original designation connected Highway 144—then designated Highway 544—in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

with Highway 69 in Val Caron, entirely within what is now Greater Sudbury. This routing was first designated and remained in place until , at which point it was transferred to the

Regional Municipality of Sudbury The Regional Municipality of Sudbury was a Regional Municipality that existed in Ontario, Canada, from 1973 to 2000, and was primarily centred on the city of Sudbury. It served as an upper-tier level of municipal government, aggregating municipal ...

and eventually designated as Municipal Road 15. The current routing of Highway 634 is one of the northernmost in Ontario. It was originally opened as Highway 807 on July 21, 1966. However, Highway 807 was redesignated as Highway 634 in 1977, establishing the current route. Within Smooth Rock Falls, a slight realignment was constructed during the 1980s, but otherwise the route has remained unchanged.

Major intersections

References

{{Ontario Secondary Highways 634 Roads in Cochrane District