The numbered roads in the Regional Municipality of Durham account for about of the county road system in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. The

Durham Region The Regional Municipality of Durham (), informally referred to as Durham Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. Located east of Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York, it forms the east end of the Greater Toronto A ...

Works Department owns and maintains the regional roads and regional highways, while the

Ministry of Transportation of Ontario The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is the provincial ministry of the Government of Ontario that is responsible for transport infrastructure and related law in Ontario, Canada. The ministry traces its roots back over a century to the 1890s, w ...

(MTO) owns and maintains the King's Highways in the region. The 67 (7 King's Highways, 4 Regional Highways, and 56 Regional Roads) numbered roads provide access to the entirety of the region.

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian prov ...

forms the backbone of the region, traveling from the western boundary of the region to the eastern boundary alongside

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

, and serving over 200,000 vehicles per day. Several provincially maintained highways existed in the region prior to 1998, when they were transferred to municipal government in the region as part of a province-wide downloading of highways. Where the regional tier of municipal government has since been responsible for these routes, they have been designated as ''Durham Regional Highways''.

Network

The road network of the Regional Municipality of Durham consists of 832 kilometres (2,087 lane kilometres) of arterial roadway. There are 60 numbered roads, referred to mostly as ''Regional Roads'', though four former King's Highways are referred to as ''Regional Highways'', where they are now owned and maintained by the region. In addition to the roads, there are 209 bridge and culvert structures currently maintained by the region. The region is not responsible for the bridges over and under Highway 401, Highway 407 and Highway 412 nor the bridges over and under Highway 35/115 or, all of which are maintained by the MTO. The region is also exempt from the construction and maintenance of bridges crossed by railway, but not from bridges which separate road and rail crossings.

History

The regional municipality of Durham was created in 1974 by the merger of portions of Durham and

counties.

Structures

The Regional Municipality of Durham is responsible for the maintenance of both pavement as well as many structures that are over, under, or near the pavement. Bridges,

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...

s, and traffic signals are all built and maintained by the Works Department.

Services

The Durham Regional Police Service Traffic Enforcement unit handles enforcement of traffic laws, except on the King's Highways, which are patrolled by the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the State police, provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. The OPP patrols Provincial highways in Ontario, provincial highways and waterways; protects Government of Ontario, provincial government buil ...

. Speed limits on regional roads vary between 50 and 80 kilometres per hour. Police in Durham will generally not set speed traps, as the region encourages the safe flow of traffic, and punishes unsafe driving rather than speed limits. Maintenance and snow clearing is performed by the Durham Works Department. Five depots operate throughout the region in addition to the traffic operations centre in

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

Numbered roads

Durham Region R Hwy 12 Ends RR 28 Whitby

Regional Highways

Regional Roads

Notes

References

Route maps

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Numbered Roads In Durham Region Roads in the Regional Municipality of Durham