Highway 85 | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Route information | |||||||||||||
Maintained by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario | |||||||||||||
Length: | 9.8 km (6.1 mi) | ||||||||||||
Existed: | March 28, 1934 – present | ||||||||||||
Major junctions | |||||||||||||
South end: | Victoria Street North in Kitchener | ||||||||||||
North end: | King Street interchange in Woolwich Township | ||||||||||||
Highway system | |||||||||||||
|
King's Highway 85, commonly referred to as Highway 85, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, connecting Highway 7 to immediately north of the Waterloo city limits. The 10-kilometre (6.2 mi) highway, which is mostly controlled-access, travels through the Regional Municipality of Waterloo along the Conestoga Parkway from its interchange with Highway 7, which continues south along the parkway, to an interchange with Regional Road 15 (King Street), where it continues as Regional Road 85 to St. Jacobs.
Prior to completion of the Conestoga Parkway through Waterloo, Highway 85 followed King Street north of Ottawa Street through Kitchener and Waterloo. Within the City of Waterloo, this former alignment is now maintained by the region as Regional Road 15. Within the city of Kitchener, the road is simply known as King Street. The parkway was constructed between 1968 and 1977. By 1980, Highway 85 was renumbered as Highway 86, to improve the continuity of provincial route numbers. However, when the majority of Highway 86 was decommissioned in 1998, the remaining portion was soon renumbered as Highway 85 in 2003.
Highway 85 begins in Kitchener at an interchange between the Conestoga Parkway and Victoria Street. At that interchange, Highway 7 exits the parkway and travels east on Victoria Street towards Guelph. The divided freeway continues north, swerving left and right through suburban Kitchener. It first crosses a Via Rail line and interchanges with Wellington Street, after which it passes alongside the Grand River. After entering the neighbourhood of Bridgeport, which it divides in two, the route curves west, interchanges with Lancaster Street and crosses into Waterloo.