Ouellette Avenue
| Length | 4.5 km (2.8 mi) |
|---|---|
| Location | Windsor |
| North end | just north of Riverside Drive at the Riverfront Bike Trail |
| South end | Dougall Avenue |
Ouellette Avenue (most commonly pronounced Oh-Let, pronounced by French-speakers as 'Wellette') is one of the main North-South Roads in Windsor, Ontario, and acts as its Main Street. The road diverges from Dougall Avenue south of Downtown Windsor, travelling northward over the Essex Terminal Railway/CP Rail tracks, before terminating at a turnaround and parking lot at Dieppe Gardens in Windsor's core.
The road is 4-lanes for most of its length, narrowing down to two lanes north of Wyandotte Street. Its purpose is to divert traffic from the Ambassador Bridge (via Highway 3/Huron Church Road), by sending it to the Tunnel (Via Dougall Parkway, Dougall Avenue, to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, along Wyandotte Street to its Canadian terminus at Goyeau Street. Traffic onward into the United States generally continues onto Woodward Avenue, Detroit's "Main Street", which lies along the same alignment as Ouellette.
The road is quite busy, and is mostly used by cars, as trucks longer than 45 feet cannot fit around the curve on the American side of the Detroit Tunnel, and the Ambassador Bridge tends to be clogged.
Ouellette Avenue first began as the original alignment of Highway 3 from 1920, terminating at the International Ferry Dock between Ouellette Avenue and Dougall Avenue, in downtown Windsor. This remained until July 10, 1929, when the Ambassador Bridge opened. Highway 3 was re-routed along the newly constructed Huron Church Road to the bridge, and Ouellette Avenue was re-designated as Highway 3A (Windsor). This lasted until 1935, when it was re-designated as Highway 3B (Windsor).
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Wikipedia