Ontario Highway 110 History - The King's Highways of Ontario

King's Highway 110 was among Ontario's shortest King's Highways to ever exist. The highway was located in the County of Lanark at the approaches to the Town of Carleton Place. The highway served as a northern bypass of Carleton Place for a number of years in the late 1940s and 1950s. The history of Highway 110 dates back to 1948, when the Department of Highways of Ontario (DHO) assumed Townline Road through Carleton Place as a new King's Highway. This tiny route was first shown on a Preliminary Route Plan dated May 18, 1948. The proposed highway connected Highway 15 (today's Highway 7) immediately west of Carleton Place's municipal limits to Highway 29 (William Street) in Carleton Place. The route was reported to be 1.99 miles (3.2 km) in length when it was first assumed by the DHO as a new King's Highway on August 11, 1948. This route seems to have been created as a truck bypass, as the existing junction of Highway 15 and Highway 29 at Bridge Street and Bell Street in Downtown Carleton Place was very constrained, as was the turn for Highway 15 at High Street and Bridge Street. Buildings lined both sides of these streets, giving trucks very little room to make turns.

Recently-discovered plans for the highway dated 1949 identify the newly-assumed route as the "Highway 15 Carleton Place Cut-Off". It is unclear whether the route was actually signed as a second leg of Highway 15 initially, or whether motorists were merely directed between Highway 15 and Highway 29 using destination signs only. The Highway 110 route number was apparently not introduced until 1953, when it was first shown on the Official Ontario Road Map and in other DHO documents. Even then, the Highway 110 route number seems to have been assigned to a portion of the route only. DHO mileage tables reported the mileage of Highway 110 as being only 1.3 miles (2.1 km), with the eastern terminus of the highway being listed as "Bridge Street - Carleton Place". Accordingly, it appears that the route of Highway 110 was initially only signed as a loop both originating from, and returning to, Highway 15. Enlargements of Carleton Place in the Ontario Motor League's annual guide books show a route for Highway 110 that matches this reported mileage. On these maps, Highway 110 is shown to begin at Highway 15 west of Carleton Place at the intersection of Townline Road and High Street and connect back to Highway 15 at the intersection of Bridge Street and High Street in Carleton Place. Presumably, this route was marked this way so that trucks and other large vehicles intending to continue beyond Carleton Place on Highway 15 did not have to turn from High Street (Highway 15 West) onto Bridge Street (Highway 15 East) or vice-versa. Trucks could proceed up to Townline Road via Bridge Street and make their turn onto Highway 110 at a wider and more accommodating intersection.

Throughout the 1950s, Highway 110 was shown in the DHO's Annual Reports as terminating at Highway 29 in Carleton Place, with a reported mileage of 1.8 miles (2.9 km). This is likely because Bridge Street was not an assumed portion of the King's Highway, whereas Townline Road was fully under the jurisdiction of the DHO throughout the 1950s. The section of Townline Road lying east of Bridge Street was apparently not being signed as Highway 110, even though this portion of the route was considered to be part of Highway 110 by the Department. When Municipal Connecting Link Routes were formally designated by Orders-in-Council under the Highway Improvement Act through Carleton Place in the late 1950s, Highway 29 was rerouted through town. As originally established in the 1920s, Highway 29 turned right from Bridge Street onto Bell Street just north of the Mississippi River Bridge. Highway 29 then followed Bell Street, Napoleon Street (today's Mullett Street) and William Street out of town. As a result of the Municipal Connecting Link designation, the old route of Highway 29 was discontinued. Instead, Highway 29 was signed northerly from the intersection of Bell Street and Bridge Street up to Townline Road, where the highway turned right and proceeded along Townline Road out of town towards Almonte and Arnprior. Highway 110 is believed to have been signed concurrently with Highway 29 along Bridge Street between High Street and Townline Road from 1958 up until 1960, when Highway 110 was renumbered as Highway 15B. Once the new Carleton Place Bypass was completed and opened to traffic in December 1959, a review of the highway numbering through Carleton Place was completed. Since the route of Highway 15 had been relocated onto the new Carleton Place Bypass, it was felt that a Highway 15B Business Loop should be established through the town centre to provide additional guidance for motorists who sought to leave the Trans-Canada Highway for services and return to their route on the opposite side of town. Accordingly, the former route of Highway 110 was renumbered as a portion of this newly-established Highway 15B Business Loop in June 1960.