Ontario Highway 5 History - The King's Highways of Ontario

King's Highway 5 is a major trunk highway which links the Greater Toronto Area with Hamilton and Paris. The highway passes through a predominantly urbanized area, with nearly two-thirds of the highway's length contained within built-up areas. The principal towns located along the highway are Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington, Hamilton and Paris. The highway was first established in 1920 when the road from Cooksville (part of present-day Mississauga) to Hamilton and Port Dover was assumed as a provincial highway. The highway was extended from Cooksville to Toronto in 1921. In 1927, the section of Highway 5 from Clappison's Corners near Hamilton to Port Dover was renumbered as Highway 6. In turn, Highway 5 was extended westerly to meet up Highway 8 at Peters Corners. The highway was extended to St. George and Paris in the early 1930s. Highway 5 was almost lost entirely to downloading in 1998, when nearly 90% (or about 100 km) of this highway was tranferred to municipalities. The only section of Highway 5 spared from the downloading was from the Highway 6 Junction at Clappison's Corners to the Highway 8 Junction at Peters Corners. The downloaded sections of Highway 5 retained their original route number after 1998, but they are now just municipal streets and county roads. The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is planning to replace the congested traffic signal at Clappison's Corners (Highway 6) with an interchange within the next few years.

Highway 5 is a minimum of four lanes from Toronto to Clappison's Corners, except the section through Waterdown which is only two lanes. The balance of the highway from Clappison's Corners to Highway 2 in Paris is two lanes. The former concurrent route of Highway 5 and Highway 24 between St. George and Osborne Corners is no longer signed. Services along Highway 5 are generally quite plentiful. The speed limit on Highway 5 is 80 km/h (50 mph), unless posted otherwise. Please visit the Highway 5 Mileage Chart page for a list of mileage reference points along Highway 5.