History of King's Highway 11B (Orillia):
The Orillia Highway 11B Business Route was created in 1959, several years after the Orillia Bypass was completed and opened to traffic. For a few years following the
completion of the Orillia Bypass in 1954, the old route of Highway 11 through Downtown Orillia retained its original route number. In 1959, the old route through
Downtown Orillia (via Memorial Avenue, Colborne Street, West Street, Coldwater Road, Front Street, Neywash Street, Laclie Street and Laurie Street) was renumbered as
Highway 11B. The entire route of Highway 11B within the Town of Orillia's limits was designated as a Municipal Connecting Link by an Order-in-Council, effective May
21, 1959. The route of Highway 11B was modified slightly in 1974, when the old route of Highway 11B via West Street and Coldwater Road was discontinued. The Municipal
Connecting Link Agreement was amended to reflect a new route via Colborne Street and Front Street, effective March 6, 1974. It should be noted that the route of
Highway 11B was illustrated differently on many editions of the Official Ontario Road Map in the 1960s and 1970s. The route of Highway 11B was 8.7 km in length.
Portions of Highway 11B approaching Orillia remained under provincial jurisdiction for a number of years following the completion of the Orillia Bypass. As Orillia
expanded its limits during the 1960s and 1970s, some provincially-owned sections of Highway 11B were transferred to the City of Orillia. The section of Highway 11B
via Memorial Avenue from the former limits of the Town of Orillia at Barrie Road to the South Orillia Bypass (Highway 12) was transferred on July 24, 1969. That same
day, another section of Highway 11B via Laurie Street (today's Laclie Street) was transferred from the former limits of the Town of Orillia near North Street to
Sundial Drive. The transferred section of Highway 11B via Laclie Street was designated as part of the Municipal Connecting Link portion of Highway 11B by an
Order-in-Council, effective April 16, 1970. The section of Highway 11B via Memorial Avenue between Barrie Road and Highway 12 was designated as a Municipal Connecting
Link, effective March 6, 1974. On October 10, 1979, jurisdiction over the remaining provincially-owned section of Highway 11B within the City of Orillia limits was
transferred. This section of Highway 11B, from Highway 12 to a point just north of the Highway 11 Interchange, was designated as a Municipal Connecting Link,
effective November 14, 1979.
The route of Highway 11B continued to be signed until 1982, when the entire route was assigned an unposted 7000-series highway number (Highway 7183). The section of
Highway 7183 lying between the west limits of the City of Orillia and the Highway 11 Interchange was transferred to the County of Simcoe on March 31, 1997. This
section of the highway within Simcoe County is now known as Simcoe Road 49. The north section of Highway 7183 between Sundial Drive and the Highway 11 Interchange was
transferred from the province to the City of Orillia on January 1, 1998. This section of former Highway 7183 is now simply known as Laclie Street.
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