Ontario Highway 22 Explained

Province:ON
Type:ON 1960
Route:22
Alternate Name:Egremont Drive
Map Custom:yes
Map Notes:A map of Highway22
Maint:the Ministry of Transportation
Length Km:46.0
Length Ref:[1]
Established:July2, 1927[2]
Decommissioned:January1, 1998
Direction A:West
Direction B:East
Terminus A: near Wisbeach
Terminus B: in London
Junction: near Strathroy
Previous Type:Hwy
Previous Route:21
Next Type:Hwy
Next Route:23

King's Highway22, commonly referred to as Highway22, was a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, located between Sarnia and London. Since 1998, the majority of the former route has been known as Middlesex County Road22 and Lambton County Road22. It began at Highway 7 and Highway 79 north of Watford and proceeded east to Highway 4 in the north end of London. Between those two points, it passed through the small communities of Wisbeach, Dejong, Adelaide, Wrightmans Corners, Hickory Corner, Poplar Hill, Lobo, and Melrose. The highway was located within Lambton County, Middlesex County, and the city of London, and it followed the historic Egremont Road

Highway22 was designated in 1927 to provide a route between Sarnia and London; until then, the only provincial highway connection between the two cities was a circuitous route via Highway7 and Highway4 through Parkhill and Elginfield. The original routing of Highway22 passed through Watford and Strathroy until a more direct route was established in 1947. The function of Highway22 was largely supplanted by the completion of Highway 402 throughout the 1970s. Accordingly, it was decommissioned and turned over to local jurisdiction in 1997 and 1998.

Route description

Highway22 was a 46km (29miles) highway that connected Highway7 north of Watford with Highway4 in London; Highway7 continued west to Sarnia. The route was located within Lambton County, Middlesex County and the city of London.[3] Since being decommissioned in 1998, most of the former route has been known as County Road22, or Fanshawe Park Road within London; it is twolanes wide except east of Hyde Park Road in London, where it is four lanes wide. Outside London, the former route is surrounded almost exclusively by sprawling farmland outside of the few small communities through which it passes.

Highway22 began at the intersection of Highway7 and Highway79 near Wisbeach — the east of two intersections between those highways — from which it proceeded east along the historic Egremont road. The first 3.7km (02.3miles) were located in Lambton County, and this segment is now known as Lambton County Road22. East of the Lambton–Middlesex boundary at Sexton Road, which also serves as the municipal boundary between Warwick and Adelaide Metcalfe, it is known as Middlesex County Road22. Continuing in a straight line, it passed through the hamlet of Adelaide before reaching Highway 81, now known as Middlesex County Road81, at Wrightmans Corners, just north of Strathroy.

At Hickory Corner (at one time an established village known as Amiens),[4] the former route of Highway22 enters the municipality of Middlesex Centre, with the survey grid turning approximately 45°, relative to Adelaide Metcalfe.[5] It presses through farmland at an oblique angle to lot lines, travelling through the communities of Poplar Hill, Lobo and Melrose.[6] East of Melrose, Egremont Drive curves northeast onto the alignment of Fanshawe Park Road, taking on that name at Denfield Road.Although the city limits of London now lie 0.6km (00.4miles) east of Denfield Road, they were at Derwent Road in the early 1990s.[7]

Within the present limits of London, the former route of Highway22 briefly travels through farmland before reaching the rural–urban fringe of the city near Hyde Park Road. It progressively becomes entrenched between subdivisions as it continues northeast. Beyond Wonderland Road, the former route crosses Medway Creek.Immediately prior to being decommissioned, Highway22 ended at Derwent Road, midway between Wonderland Road and Highway4 (Richmond Street).However, until the early 1990s, it continued along Fanshawe Park Road as far as Highbury Avenue.

History

Egremont Road

Early European settlement in southwestern Ontario was predominantly focused along the shores of Lake Erie, as water-based routes were the principal means of transportation at the time. However, the War of 1812 made evident the need for overland roads.[8] The Long Woods Purchase and the Huron Tract Purchase, in 1819 and 1833 respectively, opened the lands west of London to settlement.[9] [10] Sir John Colborne, the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada in the 1830s, ordered a survey of the lands as well as a road from London to Lake Huron on the shortest line between the two. This line was named in honour of George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, who was encouraging emigration to the area from England.[11] The surveying itself was carried out by Peter Carroll under the supervision of Mahlon Burwell in 1831 and 1832.[12]

A town site named Errol was laid out at the Lake Huron end of the line. While it was expected that Errol would quickly grow in to a thriving port, Sarnia did instead due largely in part to politician and businessman Malcolm Cameron. Cameron advocated for the construction of the London Line, along which Watford and Strathroy were established. By 1850, Errol was abandoned and the London Line was the main thoroughfare between London and the border at Sarnia.[13]

Provincial highway

When Ontario's Department of Public Highways (DPHO) first established a network of provincial highways on February26, 1920, in order to be eligible for federal funding, it did not provide for a direct route between Sarnia and London.[14] While unimproved roads crisscrossed the intermediate farmland, the only provincial connection between the two cities was a circuitous route along what would become Highway7 and Highway4. That route travelled north from Warwick through Arkona, east through Parkhill and Alisa Craig to Elginfield, then south to London.[15] Following the numbering of provincially-maintained roads in the summer of 1925,[16] the DPHO began to assume new routes to complement the fifteen existing highways (numbered 2 through 17, excluding 13).[17] Among these was the Sarnia–London Highway, a route that encompassed a portion of Highway7, as well as a new highway through Watford and Strathroy that would be designated as Highway22. On July2, 1927, 40.4km (25.1miles) of roads within Middlesex County were taken over, or assumed, by the DPHO. A further 12.8km (08miles) of roads within Lambton County were assumed eleven days later on July13.

While initially unpaved, the DPHO immediately set forth to pave the entire route. Expecting the work to be carried out gradually over several years, paving of 16km (10miles) of Highway7 east from Reeces Corners began June15, 1927.[18] Progress was much faster than anticipated, and by the end of that month the contractor had been ordered to continue paving as much as possible throughout the remainder of the construction season.[19] Paving began simultaneously at the London end of the route. By the end of the 1927 work was completed west from Hyde Park Road to the community of Lobo, nearly 13km (08miles).Another 8km (05miles) from Lobo to Hickory Corner was paved in 1928.[20] A 35km (22miles) segment of paving was completed on October28, 1929, uniting the pavement west of Warwick with Hickory Corner. Minister of Highways George S. Henry cut a ribbon at a ceremony in Strathroy that day to officially open the paved Sarnia–London Highway.[21] Despite this, a 4.9km (03miles) section of Highway22 between Hyde Park Road and Highway4 remained unpaved.This final segment was paved in 1930.[22] That year also saw the DPHO renamed as the Department of Highways (DHO) and the introduction of The King's Highway title.[23]

The chosen route for Highway22 was approximately 8km (05miles) longer than the more direct routing along Egremont Road. While some groups advocated the province instead take over the 22.7km (14.1miles) Sarnia Gravel Road between Wisbeach and Hickory Corner as the Sarnia–London highway, the towns of Watford and Strathroy successfully petitioned for the route to pass through them instead. The mindset of the time was that bypassing the communities would bring about their demise and that tourists would be better served by having frequent access to services and accommodations.[24] [25] [26] By the 1940s this mentality had flipped to one in which bypasses reduced congestion and accidents by removing through traffic from business areas.[27] On April16, 1947, the DHO took control of Egremont Road with the intention of reducing the distance between Sarnia and London.[28] [29]

The Official Ontario Road Map indicates that Highway22 continued south along Highway4 to Highway 2 (Dundas Street) in downtown London from 1940 until 1972,[30] [31] after which it is shown continuing along Fanshawe Park Road to Highway 126 (Highbury Avenue).[32] [33]

Downloads

Planning for the route that would become Highway402 began following the completion of the Blue Water Bridge in 1938. A divided highway was constructed through Sarnia following World War II; it was completed and designated in 1953.[34] The DHO announced its intent to extend the route to Highway401 in 1957.[35] However, while some preliminary work began in the early 1960s, it would take until 1968 for a preferred route to be announced,[36] and until 1972 for construction to begin.[37] Work was carried out through the remainder of the 1970s, and the freeway was completed and ceremonially opened in late 1982.[38] Now largely rendered redundant by the parallel freeway, the route of Highway22 was gradually decommissioned and transferred to county and municipal jurisdiction throughout the 1990s.

The London–Middlesex Act, passed December10, 1992, expanded the municipal boundaries of the City of London effective January1, 1993.[39] The 5.5km (03.4miles) section of Highway22 between Derwent Road (the former boundary) and 600m (2,000feet) east of Denfield Road was consequently transferred to the City of London.[40] [41] As part of a series of budget cuts initiated by premier Mike Harris under his Common Sense Revolution platform, a 16.5km (10.3miles) section of the route between the Highway7/79 junction north of Watford and the Highway81 junction north of Strathroy was transferred to Lambton and Middlesex counties on April1, 1997.[42] This was followed up several months later by the transfer of the remaining 22.3km (13.9miles) east of Highway81 to the London boundary on January1, 1998.[43] Highway22 was removed from the provincial highway system as a result of these transfers. Today it is known as County Road22, Egremont Drive and Fanshawe Park Road.Despite Lambton County designating County Road22 along London Line between Highway40 in Sarnia and the county boundary east of Wisbeach, Highway22 never continued west of Watford.

References

Notes and References

  1. Provincial Highways Distance Table . Ministry of Transportation . Provincial Highways Distance Table: King's Secondary Highways and Tertiary Roads . Government of Ontario . April 1, 1997 . 0825-5350 . 47 . February 16, 2021 . Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
  2. Annual Report . Department of Highways . March 31, 1928 . Appendix No. 6 – Schedule of Assumptions and Reversions of Sections of the Provincial Highway System for the Years 1926 and 1927 . 60 . February 16, 2021 . Internet Archive.
  3. Ontario Back Road Atlas . Mapart . Peter Heiler Ltd . 2010 . 12–14 . S8–T16 . 978-1-55198-226-7.
  4. Book: Grainger , Jennifer . Vanished Villages of Middlesex . Natural Heritage / Natural History . 2002 . 1-896219-51-9 . 3–4, 94–99.
  5. News: The Earliest Strathroy Names . Bill . Groot . Strathroy Age Dispatch . May 10, 2012.
  6. Web site: From Forest to Field . Glenn . Stott . Lambton County Museums . February 17, 2021.
  7. Ontario Road Map . Cartographic Mapping Unit . Ministry of Transportation . 1992–93 . London . February 18, 2021.
  8. News: Historic Exhibit . The Windsor Daily Star . September 23, 1963 . 91 . 18 . 7 . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  9. Web site: Map of Ontario Treaties and Reserves . Ministry of Indigenous Affairs . Government of Ontario . February 22, 2021.
  10. NextEra Energy Canada, ULC Jericho Wind Energy Centre Lambton and Middlesex Counties, Ontario . Jamie . Davidson . Carla . Parslow . Golder Associates . October 11, 2012 . 3.4 Historic Euro-Canadian Archaeological Resources and Surveys . 13, 20 . February 22, 2021.
  11. News: 125 Years Ago Errol Once Thriving Townsite . The Windsor Daily Star . February 28, 1959 . 81 . 152 . 4 . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  12. Book: Burkholder , Mabel . Aldershot Tweedsmuir Histories, Volume 1 – Family History of Carrolls, Cutters, Davis', Emery's, Easterbrooks . Aldershot Women's Institute . 92–94 . February 22, 2021.
  13. News: Errol: the City That Never Was . Phil . Egan . The Sarnia Journal . January 3, 2016 . February 22, 2021.
  14. Book: From Footpaths to Freeways . Shragge . John . Bagnato . Sharon . Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Historical Committee . 1984 . 0-7743-9388-2 . 71–75.
  15. Ontario Road Map . D. Barclay . Ontario Department of Public Highways . 1927 . D5–6 . February 19, 2021 . Archives of Ontario.
  16. Provincial Highways Now Being Numbered . Monetary Times Print . The Canadian Engineer . August 25, 1925 . 49 . 8 . 246 . Numbering of the various provincial highways in Ontario has been commenced by the Department of Public Highways. Resident engineers are now receiving metal numbers to be placed on poles along the provincial highways. These numbers will also be placed on poles throughout cities, towns and villages, and motorists should then have no trouble in finding their way in and out of urban municipalities. Road designations from "2" to "17" have already been allotted....
  17. Annual Report . Department of Public Highways . March 1, 1929 . Provincial Highway Construction, 1927; Appendix No. 6 – Schedule of Assumptions and Reversions of Sections of the Provincial Highway System for the Years 1926 and 1927 . 24, 60 . February 19, 2021 . Internet Archive.
  18. News: Paving London Road . The Border Cities Star . June 15, 1927 . 18 . 90 . 11, Second Section . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  19. News: Complete Paving: 25-Mile Stretch is Ordered on Main Highway . The Border Cities Star . June 28, 1927 . 18 . 101 . 11 . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  20. Annual Report . Department of Highways . March 3, 1931 . Provincial Highway Construction . 21, 23 . February 19, 2021 . Internet Archive.
  21. News: Sarnia to London All Paved Route Open . October 29, 1929 . Port Huron Times Herald . 1 . February 19, 2021 . Internet Archive.
  22. Annual Report . Department of Highways . October 24, 1932 . Pavement Operations During 1930 . 31 . February 19, 2021 . Internet Archive.
  23. News: Change Signs on Highways . The Border Cities Star . July 12, 1929 . 22 . 114 . 14 . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  24. News: Will Seek Paving: London-Sarnia Road Backers to Visit Toronto . The Border Cities Star . February 16, 1928 . 19 . 141 . 15, Second Section . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  25. News: Strathroy Will Have New Highway . The Border Cities Star . June 29, 1927 . 18 . 102 . 14 . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  26. News: Sarnia Road Link Sought by Big Group . The Border Cities Star . April 24, 1926 . 16 . 47 . 10 . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  27. News: Ontario Highways . Torchy . Anderson . The Winnipeg Tribune . August 12, 1939 . 50 . 192 . 3, Magazine Section . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  28. News: Straighten London, Sarnia Highway . The Border Cities Star . April 18, 1947 . 58 . 41 . 23 . February 21, 2021 . Newspapers.com.
  29. Annual Report . Department of Highways . March 31, 1948 . Appendix No. 3 – Schedule of Assumptions and Reversions of Sections of The King's Highways System for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 1948 . 108 . February 19, 2021.
  30. Ontario Road Map . Geo. Stockdale . Ontario Department of Highways . 1939–40 . London . February 22, 2021 . Archives of Ontario.
  31. Ontario Road Map . Geo. Stockdale . Ontario Department of Highways . 1940–41 . London . February 22, 2021 . Archives of Ontario.
  32. Ontario Road Map . Photogrammetry Office . Department of Transportation and Communications . 1972 . London . February 22, 2021 . Archives of Ontario.
  33. Ontario Road Map . Photogrammetry Office . Ministry of Transportation and Communications . 1973 . London . February 22, 2021 . Archives of Ontario.
  34. Heritage Impact Assessment: Christina Street Bridge over Highway 402, Sarnia . Built Heritage, Cultural Landscape and Planning Section . Archaeological Services Inc . January 2006 . 2.0 Background History . 4 . http://www.historicbridges.org/concrete/christina/historical.pdf . January 6, 2014.
  35. News: Sarnia Link to 401 in Project . The Windsor Daily Star . September 12, 1957 . 20 . December 15, 2011.
  36. Sarnia to London (Hwy. 402) . Ontario Department of Highways . February 28, 1968.
  37. Book: Highway Construction Program: King's and Secondary Highways . Ministry of Transportation and Communications . 1972–1973 . xi.
  38. Book: Annual Report . Ministry of Transportation and Communications . 1982–1983 . 76 . Construction.
  39. Web site: History of Middlesex County . Middlesex County . December 16, 2020.
  40. Ontario Road Map . Cartographic Mapping Unit . Ministry of Transportation . 1992–93 . London . February 17, 2021.
  41. Ontario Road Map . Cartographic Mapping Unit . Ministry of Transportation . 1996 . London.
  42. Highway Transfers List . Ministry of Transportation of Ontario . April 1, 1997 . 6.
  43. Highway Transfers List – "Who Does What" . Ministry of Transportation of Ontario . June 20, 2001 . 9.