King's Highway 11, commonly referred to as Highway 11, is a provincially-maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. At , it is the second-longest highway in the province, after Highway 17. Highway11 begins at Highway 400 in Barrie and arches through northern Ontario to the Canada–United States border at Rainy River via Thunder Bay; the road continues as Minnesota State Highway 72 across the Baudette–Rainy River International Bridge. North and west of North Bay (as well as for a short distance through Orillia), Highway11 forms part of the Trans-Canada Highway and is part of MOM's Way between Thunder Bay and Rainy River.
The original section of Highway11 along Yonge Street was one of the first roads in what would later become Ontario. It was devised as an overland military route between York (Toronto) and Penetanguishene. Yonge Street serves as the east–west divide throughout York Region and Toronto.
Highway11 became a provincial highway in 1920 when the network was formed, although many of the roads that make up the route were constructed before the highway was designated. At the time, it only extended between Toronto and north of Orillia. In 1937, the route was extended to Hearst, northwest of Timmins. The route was extended to Nipigon by 1943. In 1965, Highway11 was extended to Rainy River, bringing it to its maximum length of . The southernmost section from Barrie to Lake Ontario in Toronto (the entirety of Yonge Street and the rest of the route through Barrie) was decommissioned as a provincial highway in 1996 and 1997.
From the late 1940s through the 1960s, numerous bypasses of towns along the route were built, including Orillia, Washago, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, Emsdale, Powassan, Callander, North Bay, Cobalt, Haileybury, New Liskeard and Thunder Bay. Beginning in the 1960s, the highway was expanded to four lanes between Barrie and North Bay in stages. Four-laning was completed between Barrie and Gravenhurst in the 1960s, between Gravenhurst and Huntsville in the 1970s, and from North Bay south to Callander in the 1980s. The remaining two-lane section between Huntsville and Callander was expanded through the 1990s and 2000s and completed in 2012. A section concurrent with Highway17 east of Thunder Bay was rebuilt as a divided highway in the early 2010s and work continues. After a structural failure in 2016, the two-lane Nipigon River Bridge was replaced with a twin-span bridge that opened in 2018.
The speed limit is for the freeway portion between Emsdale and South River and ranges from to elsewhere. The route is patrolled by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO).
Route description Highway11 varies between a divided four-lane urban freeway and a two-lane rural road. It travels through surroundings ranging from cities to farmland to the uninhabited wilderness. The section through northern Ontario includes several sections with no gas or service for over . Significant urban centres serviced by the route include Barrie, Orillia, Gravenhurst, Bracebridge, Huntsville, North Bay, Temiskaming Shores, Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Hearst, Nipigon, Thunder Bay, Atikokan, Fort Frances and Rainy River. It is often paired with Yonge Street in the persistent but incorrect factoid that Yonge Street is the longest street in the world, a claim that was featured in the book of Guinness World Records from 1977 to 1998.
Barrie – North Bay Highway11 begins at an interchange with Highway400 on the north side of Barrie, travelling northeast parallel to the northwestern shore of Lake Simcoe. The four-lane route, divided by a median barrier, crosses former Highway93 (Penetanguishene Road) and passes through a generally flat rural area, though businesses line both sides of the route. At the northern end of Lake Simcoe, the highway enters Orillia, where it is built as a divided freeway. It meets and becomes concurrent with Highway12 for . At Laclie Street, the route exits Orillia and returns to a RIRO design with rural surroundings. It travels northward along the western shore of Lake Couchiching as far as Washago, then crosses the Severn River / Trent Severn Waterway.
North of the Severn River, Highway11 travels through the Canadian Shield; large granite outcroppings are frequent and thick Boreal forest dominates the terrain. At Gravenhurst, the highway makes a sharp curve to the east, then becomes a divided freeway again before curving northward around Gull Lake. Near Bracebridge, it meets Highway 118 and former Highway 117. Highway 141 branches west from the route between Bracebridge and Huntsville, while Highway 60 branches east towards Algonquin Provincial Park in Huntsville. The section between Gravenhurst and Bracebridge is at freeway standards, while several at-grade intersections remain between Bracebridge and Huntsville. Highway11 crosses the 45th parallel north north of the bridge carrying Highway118 at interchange182, just outside Bracebridge.
The section of Highway11 between Huntsville and North Bay provides access to the western side of Algonquin Park. It also connects to Highway 518 at Emsdale, Highway 520 at Burk's Falls, Highway 124 at Sundridge and South River, Highway 522 at Trout Creek, Highway 534 at Powassan, and Highway 94 and Highway 654 at Callander. Most of this section is built to freeway standards, although a small number of at-grade intersections remain, primarily between Trout Creek and Callander.
North Bay – Nipigon
From its junction with Highway17 at North Bay, the two highways share a concurrency for to the Algonquin Avenue intersection, where Highway17 continues west toward Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie while Highway11 turns north onto Algonquin Avenue. Due to a steep incline as it descends Thibeault Hill into North Bay, the southbound Algonquin Avenue segment of Highway11 features the only runaway truck ramp on Ontario's highway system, which was upgraded in 2009. From North Bay, Highway11 extends northerly for , passing through communities such as Temagami, Latchford, Temiskaming Shores, Englehart and Matheson en route to Cochrane, where the route turns west. From Cochrane, it passes through communities such as Smooth Rock Falls, Kapuskasing, Hearst and Greenstone, arching across northeastern Ontario westward then south for before again meeting Highway17 at Nipigon.
Nipigon – Rainy River Nearly the entire route from Nipigon to Rainy River is a two-lane, undivided road, with the exception of two twinned, four-lane segments approaching Thunder Bay. The first starts just west of Nipigon and ends just north of the Black Sturgeon River, for a distance of . The second portion reaches a distance of , from Highway587 at Pass Lake to Balsam Street in Thunder Bay. Work is being done to twin the route from Ouimet to Dorion. Additionally, the section from Balsam Street to the Harbour Expressway is four lanes wide, but undivided. The partial cloverleaf interchange at Thunder Bay's Hodder Avenue is the only interchange in Northwestern Ontario.
Highway11 and 17 run concurrently from Nipigon down to Thunder Bay, a distance of approximately , where they swing west on the Shabaqua Highway, encountering Kakabeka Falls several kilometers later. The highway then runs in a northwestern direction to Shabaqua Corners, where the two highways split; Highway17 continues northwest to Dryden, Kenora, and to Winnipeg, Manitoba (via PTH-1), while Highway11 continues in a generally west direction, eventually reaching Highway11B at Atikokan, approximately halfway between Thunder Bay and Rainy River. The highway continues for , crosses the Noden Causeway, and reaches Fort Frances, where Highway71 runs south across the U.S. border to International Falls. From here, Highway11 shares a concurrency with Highway71 for until the latter branches north after Emo, while Highway11 runs parallel to the border for before approaching the town of Rainy River, where the roadway continues into Baudette, Minnesota, United States, and ends at Minnesota State Route 11.
Business routes
Highway 11B is the designation for business routes of Highway11, ten of which have existed over the years. Two continue to exist today, while the remaining eight have been decommissioned. With the exception of the short spur route into Atikokan, all were once the route of Highway11 prior to the completion of a bypass alignment. All sections of Highway11B have now been decommissioned by the province with the exception of the Atikokan route and the southernmost section of the former Tri-Town route between Cobalt and Highway11.
Highway 11B (Holland Landing) Highway 11B (Orillia) Highway 11B (Gravenhurst) Highway 11B (Huntsville) Highway 11B (Powassan) Highway 11B (North Bay) Highway 11B (Cobalt–Temiskaming Shores) Highway 11B (Matheson–Porquis Junction) Highway 11B (Thunder Bay) Highway 11B (Atikokan)
History Predecessors
The earliest established section of Highway11 is Yonge Street in Toronto and York Region, though it is no longer part of it. Yonge Street was built under the order of the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (now Ontario), John Graves Simcoe. Fearing imminent attack by the United States, he sought to create a military route between York (now Toronto) and Lake Simcoe. In doing so, he would create an alternative means of reaching the upper Great Lakes and the trading post at Michilimackinac, bypassing the American border.
In late 1793, Simcoe determined the route of his new road. The following spring, he instructed Deputy Surveyor General Augustus Jones to blaze a small trail marking the route. Simcoe initiated construction of the road by granting land to settlers, who in exchange were required to clear of frontage on the road passing their lot. In the summer of 1794, William Berczy was the first to take up the offer, leading a group of 64 families north-east of Toronto to found the small settlement of German Mills, in today's Markham. By the end of 1794, Berczy's settlers had cleared the route around Thornhill. However, the settlement was hit by a series of setbacks and road construction stalled.
Work on the road resumed in 1795 when the Queen's Rangers took over. They began their work at Eglinton Avenue and proceeded north, reaching the site of St. Albans on February16, 1796. Expansion of the trail into a road was a condition of settlement for farmers along the route, who were required to spend 12days a year to clear the road of logs, subsequently removed by convicted drunks as part of their sentence. The southern end of the road was in use in the first decade of the 19th century, and became passable all the way to the northern end in 1816.
For several years the Holland River and Lake Simcoe provided the only means of transportation; Holland Landing was the northern terminus of Yonge Street. The military route to Georgian Bay prior to, and during the War of 1812, crossed Lake Simcoe to the head of Kempenfelt Bay, then by the Nine Mile Portage to Willow Creek and the Nottawasaga River. The Penetanguishene Military Post was started before the war. However, lacking a suitable overland transport route, passage from York to Lake Huron continued via the Nottawasaga. The Penetanguishene Road, begun in 1814, replaced this route by the time the military post was opened in 1817.
In 1824, work began to extend Yonge Street to Kempenfelt Bay near Barrie. A northwestern extension was branched off the original Yonge Street in Holland Landing and ran into the new settlement of Bradford before turning back north towards Barrie. Work was completed by 1827, making connections with the Penetanguishene Road. A network of colonization roads built in the 1830s (some with military strategy in mind) pushed settlement northeast along the shores of Lake Simcoe and north towards the shores of Georgian Bay.