Ontario Highway 4

Highway 4
Location of Highway 4 in Southern Ontario      Current route      Former route
Route information
Length	100.8 km[1] (62.6 mi)
Existed	February 26, 1920[2]–present
Major junctions
South end	Highway 3 – St. Thomas
	Highway 401  Highway 402  Highway 7
North end	Highway 8 – Clinton
Location
Major cities	St. Thomas, London
Towns	Exeter, Clinton
Highway system
Ontario provincial highways Current Former 400-series ← Highway 3 → Highway 5 Former provincial highways ←  Highway 3B Highway 4A  →

King's Highway 4, also known as Highway 4, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. Originally much longer than its present 100.8 km (62.6 mi) length, more than half of Highway 4 was transferred to the responsibility of local governments in 1998. In 2018, Highway 4 was re-signed and re-routed through London. In its present form, it travels between Highway 3 in Talbotville Royal, north-west of St. Thomas, and Highway 8 in Clinton.

Highway 4 was first designated in 1920, when a 27 km (17 mi) route between Talbotville Royal and Elginfield was assumed by the Department of Highways. Over the next half century it was extended north and east to Highway 24 near Singhampton, and south to Port Stanley.

Route description[]

Former alignment of Highway 4 looking north towards Lambeth from the Highway 402 interchange in London.

Highway 4 starts at an intersection with Highway 3 in Talbotville Royal and continues north as a two-lane undivided highway. It then starts a short concurrency with Highway 401 at the community of Tempo. Before a 2017 re-route, the highway continued north from Tempo along Colonel Talbot Road. The concurrency ends at Wonderland Road, which the highway follows through London. At Sunningdale, the highway follows Sunningdale Road for a short distance before following Richmond Street.^[3][4]

The road continues north, passing through Arva, Birr and large amounts of farmland before intersecting with the western terminus of Highway 7 at Elginfield. The highway then curves slightly west, passing through Lucan before continuing north. It then passes through the communities of Huron Park and Exeter. At Exeter, it crosses the former route of Highway 83. From there, it continues north, passing through the communities of Hensall, Ontario and Vanastra, Ontario before terminating at Highway 8 in the community of Clinton.^[3][4]

History[]

The Highway 4 / Talbot Street junction in St. Thomas.

The King's Highway 4 was originally designated in 1920 when the provincial government assumed the road running from Talbotville Royal to Elginfield through London. In 1927, the highway was further extended with the assumption of the road from Elginfield to Clinton. In the 1930s, the highway was again extended as far north as the intersection of Highway 10 in Flesherton, and south to Edith Cavell Boulevard in Port Stanley. In the 1970s, Highway 4 reached its maximum length when it was extended from Flesherton to Singhampton. However, in 1998, the Mike Harris government, seeking to balance the provincial budget, off-loaded responsibility for the Clinton–Singhampton and Talbotville-Port Stanley sections of Highway 4—almost 65% of its total length—back onto municipal governments.^{[citation needed]}

In 2017, the City of London announced that Highway 4 through London would be re-signed and re-routed via Richmond Street, Sunningdale Road, and Wonderland Road, resulting in a short concurrency with Highway 401 between the Colonel Talbot Road and Wonderland Road interchanges.^[5]

Major intersections[]

The following table lists the major junctions along Highway 4, as noted by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario.^[1] 

Division	Location	km[1]	mi	Destinations	Notes
Elgin	Talbotville Royal	0.0	0.0	Highway 3 – St. Thomas
		6.0	3.7	Highway 401 – Windsor, Toronto	Exit 177, ON-4 overlaps with Hwy 401 until Wonderland Rd S.[1]
Middlesex	London	8.8	5.5	Wonderland Road South	ON-4 exits and continues northbound along Wonderland Rd S.
		15.9	9.9	Highway 402 – Sarnia
		18.1	11.2	Exeter Road	Formerly Highway 135
		18.4	11.4	Wharncliffe Road S	Former routing of Highway 4 (before Jan. 2018) and Highway 2 along Wharncliffe Rd
		29.8	18.5	Fanshawe Park Road W	Formerly Highway 22 west
		34.0	21.1	Richmond St / Sunningdale Rd	Former routing of Highway 4 via Richmond Street south
	Arva	31.6	19.6	County Road 28 (Medway Road)
		37.2	23.1	County Road 16 (Ilderton Road)
	Elginfield	45.4	28.2	Highway 7 east – St. Marys, Stratford County Road 7 west (Elginfield Road)	Access to  Highway 23 via Highway 7 east
	Clandeboye	54.3	33.7	County Road 28 (Denfield Road)
	Mooresville	58.1	36.1	Mooresville Drive
Huron	Centralia	64.2	39.9	County Road 21
	Exeter	72.4	45.0	County Road 83 (Thames Road)	Formerly Highway 83
	Hensall	80.3	49.9	County Road 84 (King Street)	Formerly Highway 84
	Kippen	84.3	52.4	County Road 12 (Kippen Road)
	Brucefield	90.4	56.2	County Road 3 (Mill Road)
	Clinton	100.8	62.6	Highway 8
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ontario Highway 4.