Ontario Highway 25 History - The King's Highways of Ontario

King's Highway 25 was a major collector highway which connected the Queen Elizabeth Way at Oakville to Highway 89 west of Shelburne. The highway was 98 km in length and it existed up until the late 1990s, when it was downloaded to the Regional Municipality of Halton and the Counties of Wellington and Dufferin. By the 1990s, the route of Highway 25 had changed considerably since the highway was first designated in the 1920s.

The history of Highway 25 dates back to 1927, when the Milton-Palermo Road was designated as Provincial Highway 25. Originally, Highway 25 began at the Highway 5 Junction in Palermo and ran north for 13 km to Milton. In 1928, Highway 25 was extended southwesterly to connect with Highway 2 at Freeman, between Burlington and Aldershot. Highway 25 was routed concurrently with Highway 5 between Palermo and Guelph Line. The route of Highway 25 then traveled south on Guelph Line to the Lower Middle Road (today's Plains Road) near Freeman. Highway 25 then turned west along Lower Middle Road, where it ended at Highway 2 at the intersection of Lower Middle Road (Plains Road) and King Road. Highway 25 was paved between Freeman and Nelson in 1929. The rest of Highway 25 from the Highway 2 Junction to Freeman and from Palermo to Milton was paved in 1930. That same year, Provincial Highway 25 was re-designated as King's Highway 25.

In 1936, the new Middle Road Highway, later known as the Queen Elizabeth Way, was completed and opened to traffic north of Burlington. This new divided expressway was constructed by building a new carriageway beside an existing section of Highway 25 for a distance of 4 km through Freeman, from just east of King Road to Guelph Line. For a number of years following the completion of the new Middle Road Highway, the Highway 25 designation was left in place along the new divided expressway. In 1946, the Highway 25 designation was removed from the Queen Elizabeth Way through Freeman. Highway 25 was truncated at the intersection of the Queen Elizabeth Way and Guelph Line, just north of Burlington.

In 1937, the Ontario Department of Highways extended Highway 25 north to Highway 7 by assuming the Milton-Acton Road as a new King's Highway. The extension of Highway 25 in 1937 brought the length of the highway up to 48 km. The length of the highway decreased slightly to 44 km in 1946, due to the removal of the Highway 25 designation along the Queen Elizabeth Way through Freeman. The section of Highway 25 between Milton and Acton was paved during highway improvement projects that were carried out in 1950 and 1951. In 1963, Highway 25 was extended from Acton northerly to the Highway 24 Junction at Ospringe. This new section of Highway 25 was gravel-surfaced when it was assumed and was not paved until 1973.

In 1970, a major rerouting took place at the southern end of Highway 25. The old route of Highway 25 between the Queen Elizabeth Way at Burlington and Highway 5 at Palermo was replaced by a new, more direct route to the Queen Elizabeth Way. The old Highway 25 route via Guelph Line was decommissioned on April 1, 1970, while the Bronte Road from Palermo to the Queen Elizabeth Way was designated as the new route for Highway 25. In 1974, a major extension took place that increased the length of Highway 25 to 98 km. This massive 51 km highway extension consolidated several former county roads and the entire route of Highway 104 from Highway 9 to Grand Valley into the new route of Highway 25. In order to complete this extension, the Ministry of Transportation designated Highway 25 concurrently with Highway 24 for 7 km between Ospringe and Brisbane and Highway 9 for 3 km near Grand Valley. Once the highway was extended in 1974, the northern terminus of Highway 25 moved from its former northern terminus at the Highway 24 Junction at Ospringe to Highway 89, about 12 km west of Shelburne.

The route of Highway 25 remained unchanged until 1997-1998, when the entire highway was downloaded. On July 1, 1997, the section of Highway 25 lying between the Queen Elizabeth Way in Oakville and Highway 401 in Milton was downloaded. This included a section of Highway 25 through Milton that was considered to be a connecting link. Six months later, on January 1, 1998, the remainder of Highway 25 from Highway 401 northerly to Highway 89 was downloaded. However, since the route of Highway 25 was discontinuous north of Acton, the counties which had the highway transferred to them had difficulty in establishing a replacement road numbering system that was consistent with the old King's Highway route number. This was further complicated by the fact that Wellington County already had an existing County Road 25 in their county road system prior to 1998. While many counties runumbered their county roads to avoid any numbering conflicts with downloaded provincial highways, Wellington County elected not to renumber their existing County Road 25, meaning that a different route number had to be assigned to former Highway 25. As a result, former Highway 25 now has seven different names, as follows: Halton Regional Road 25, Wellington County Road 125, Wellington County Road 124, Wellington County Road 24, Dufferin County Road 24, Dufferin County Road 109, and Dufferin County Road 25. Absolute madness!!

Highway 25 passes through several large towns along the southern portion of its route, but the highway becomes rather remote towards the northern end of its route. The only major towns located along the highway are Oakville, Milton, Acton and Grand Valley. The highway passes through few other communities along its 98 km route. Services are available in most larger communities on Highway 25, although services do become much less frequent north of Acton. There are no gas stations along Highway 25 north of Grand Valley. Most sections of Highway 25 are two lanes, but there are some undivided four-lane sections near towns. Unless posted otherwise, the speed limit on Highway 25 is 80 km/h (50 mph). Please visit the Highway 25 Mileage Chart page for a list of mileage reference points along Highway 25.