KING`S HIGHWAY NO. 401
1981
 Advance signage for Highway 3B located on westbound Highway 401 in Windsor. Notice how the gantry spans the entire width of the highway. This is in stark contrast to modern MTO standards, which are starting to toy with partial gantries. Summer of 1981. |
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What looks like eastbound Highway 401 approaching the Dixie Road interchange in Mississauga. Summer of 1981. |
| Approaching the Dixie Road interchange on westbound Highway 401 in Mississauga. Notice the lack of an express/collector setup extending this far west in 1981. Summer of 1981. |  |
| Looking west along westbound Highway 401 express lanes located south of Pearson International Airport in Mississauga. Summer of 1981. |  |
| Appears to be the westbound Highway 401 mainline lanes, looking west at the Hwy 427/Eglinton Avenue interchange. Notice how sparse the traffic volume is. Summer of 1981. |  |
 This gantry is located at the westbound Highway 401 exit to Airport Expressway. The Airport expressway (what is now Highway 427) was a short freeway that extended northerly from Highway 401 to connect the highway to Pearson International Airport. What is still unclear is whether this is a now defunct direct access ramp from WB 401 to Airport Expwy (NB 427) or whether because Carlingview Drive provided indirect access between the WB 401 and Airport Expwy., this is infact the exit to Carlingview Drive which was merely signed as "Airport Expressway" Thanks to Josh Anderchek for helping me identify the location of this shot. Summer of 1981. |
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| Diagram sign located on westbound Highway 401 approaching the Highway 427 interchange in Etobicoke. Here`s the same gantry 8 years later. Jamie Malecki has kindly informed me that the brown sign reading "interchange 45" is indeed a result of Ontario's past sequential numbering system, which was replaced with kilometric numbering one year after this photo was taken, in 1982. Summer of 1981. |  |
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Looking east along the eastbound Highway 401 collector lanes about 200 metres west of the Weston Road interchange in North York. Summer of 1981. |
| Fairly decent cross-sectional look of Highway 401 facing west from just west of the Weston Road overpass in North York. Despite this photo being roughly 30 years old, Highway 401 in this location (which is its busiest) has essentially the same carrying capacity today as it did in 1981. As you could figure, traffic has become much worse. Summer of 1981. |  |
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Off-centred shot of eastbound Highway 401 collector lanes approaching the Highway 400 interchange in North York. Summer of 1981. |
| Overhead gantry located at the Weston Road exit on the westbound Highway 401 collector lanes in North York. Summer of 1981. |  |
| A close-up shot of an exit sign. I think this particular sign was located on the right-turn channel ramp from the MTC headquarters to Keele Steet south. I placed it here because it's located at an intersection that serves the westbound Highway 401 offramp to Keele Street. Summer of 1981. |  |
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Broad view of the eastbound Highway 401 express lanes approaching the Allen Road overpass in North York. Summer of 1981. |
| Off-centred and blurry shot of the westbound Highway 401 collector lanes just east of the Allen Road interchange. Looks likes the MTC was busy resurfacing the collector lanes at this location when this photo was shot. Summer of 1981. |
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Overhead gantry located on the eastbound Highway 401 collector lanes at the Highway 11A/Avenue Road interchange. Notice the solid white line separating the mainline lanes from the exit lane. I noticed this feature on a few other photos from of the 1981 set. Probably an unsuccessful attempt by the MTC to prevent unnecessary and dangerous lane changes. Summer of 1981. |
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Looking east along the eastbound Highway 401 collector lanes approaching the Highway 11A/Avenue Road overpass in North York. It appears that the "2 LANES" text has been covered over in that BBS, likely due to construction. Summer of 1981. |
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Looking east along the eastbound Highway 401 collector lanes approaching the Leslie Street interchange in North York. Summer of 1981. |
