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The King's Highway 404 or simply '''Highway 404''' is an Ontario 400-Series Highway that runs from the junction of Highway 401 and the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto to its northern terminus at Green Lane/Herald Road in Newmarket . The highway mainly serves as a commuter road for those working in Toronto but living in the northern suburbs of the city. As it forms Toronto's only complete north-south freeway besides Highway 427 , Highway 404 is among the busiest freeways for its size. Originally an extension of the Don Valley Parkway and incorporating the routing of Woodbine Avenue , Highway 404 became a provincial highway (and was completed by the Ontario Ministry Of Transportation ) in 1977 . The outdated interchange with Highway 401 , built in the late 1960s along with the Highway 401 expansion project, remains a major bottleneck especially for southbound traffic. Initially, Highway 404 was completed from 401 to Steeles Avenue with 6 lanes. At the time, it had features atypical of 1970s provincial urban freeways, notably its grass median with a steel box-beam barrier and its conventional shaded high-pressure sodium lighting system, rather than the more common metal guardrail and mercury truss lights. North of Steeles, Highway 404 became a 4-lane rural freeway. In the late 1990s, Highway 404 underwent a major reconstruction with the earliest projects centring around the new Highway 407 . Subsequently, the grass median and conventional lighting system was replaced with a tall-wall concrete barrier, high-mast lighting, and 2 additional lanes per direction from Highway 401 to Highway 407. North of Highway 407, Highway 404 was widened to 6 lanes all the way to Aurora Road, and the lighting system had been extended all the way to Major Mackenzie Drive . Ramps serving 404 northbound were added to the exisiting partial interchange with 16th Avenue in 2002, and in 2003-2004, a new interchange was constructed with Elgin Mills Road. Running parallel to Highway 400 approximately 15 kilometres to the west, the 404 extends 36 Km (22 Mi. ) north-south. The MTO plans to further extend the 404 northerly (and easterly) to Highway 12, to better serve commuters and to provide an alternate highway link into Ontario's " Cottage Country ". Highway 404 has 14 interchanges along its entire length, mostly of the Parclo A4 type. The fact that the exit numbers start at 17 suggest that the Don Valley Parkway was included in distance calculations when signing the exits, although there are no exit numbers posted on the Don Valley Parkway. VOLUME INFORMATION (2002)
LANE CONFIGURATIONS FROM SOUTH TO NORTH INTERCHANGES FROM SOUTH TO NORTH FUTURE INTERCHANGES FROM SOUTH TO NORTH (EXIT NUMBERS ASSUMED) HOV LANES HOV lanes similar to those on Highway 403 in Peel Region are being added to the 404 and they stretch from 407 ETR southwards to the Highway 401 . The first projects commenced in the late 1990s and involved the construction of the Highway 407 interchange and the widening of the Highway 7 junction to incorporate the HOV lanes, although the extra pavement was blocked off and remained unused for over five years. The next stage of HOV construction was the widening of the freeway from Highway 401 to just north of Steeles Avenue using the median, in 1999-2001, along with improved ramps from 401 eastbound to 404 northbound. The new left lanes served general purpose traffic for the interim, while stretch of Highway 404 from Sheppard to Steeles was widened using the right shoulder to provide additional lanes for general purpose traffic, afterwards the innermost lanes would be converted to HOV lanes. Construction for the southbound HOV lane had been ongoing since early 2004, including an underpass tunnel to 401 west, and it was finally open in November 2005. Shortly afterwards, work on the northbound HOV lane was initiated. Since traffic congestion is warranting HOV lane adding, people often make fun of this highway since 404 Error s occur on the internet sometimes when the internet is slow. REFERENCES
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