The following was kindly forwarded to me by Shawn Colley. It`s a fairly succinct explanation as to the history behind the dual western termini of Highway 401 in Windsor.
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When Highway 401 was first built in 1952 from Windsor to Tilbury, its alignment was Dougall Parkway (connecting Dougall Road/downtown). In 1964, the road was twinned from a Super-2 (two-lane single-carriageway) to become a pair of two-lane carriageways, and it was decided by the MTO to extend Highway 401 by 1.1 km south to Highway 3 as an extension of this project, so the old link was re-designated as the "secret" number Highway 401A (similar to Highway 400A in Barrie/Crown Hill), and would remain a connecting link before being downloaded to the City of Windsor in 1998, as Dougall Parkway (which it is signed as, along with "TO 401" trailblazers). Yes, maps in the Windsor area showed BOTH freeway alignments as Highway 401, which WAS confusing, and some even listed Dougall Parkway as 3B/401, along with 3B travelling along Howard Avenue! The main alignment of Highway 3B was along Howard Avenue to the Dougall Road/Dougall Parkway interchange, then along Dougall Road/Ouellette Avenue to Wyandotte Street (terminating just a couple blocks from the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel. Maps in the Windsor area also tended to omit Highways 2 and 18 from city limits, as the city was told to maintain E.C. Row Expressway for the MTO until it was ultimately downloaded in 1998 (the MTO re-assumed responsibility of it in 2005, and stated it would re-assign the "secret" designation of Highway 7087 to E.C. Row Expressway, as it used to have). Highway 18 was shown on some maps to have travelled on Ojibway Parkway, then down Sandwich street/Riverside Drive to Ouellette Avenue, but the truth was, it terminated at the Highway 3 interchange, continuing as Highway 2 (again, this was unsigned along E.C. Row Expressway until the city limits at Banwell Road). This jurisdictional blurring confused many drivers for MANY years, and it was often unknown WHO was responsible for which roads (compounded with how Highway 3B was downloaded in 1975, but continued being signed as a connecting-link until it was compeltely obliterated in 1998). I would chalk this up to sloppy record-keeping, poor map-making skills (by not calling to confirm which roads are designated as provincial highways), and generally poor sign-maintenance in the windsor area. Now, things are much more logically-signed. |