Ontario Highway 5

Highway 5
A map of Highway 5   Highway 5   Sections decommissioned January 1, 1998   Section maintained as connecting link prior to 1998
Route information
Maintained by Ministry of Transportation of Ontario
Length	14.0 km[1] (8.7 mi)
Existed	1920–present
Major junctions
West end	Highway 8 – Dundas
East end	Highway 6 – Waterdown
Location
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Major cities	Hamilton (Dundas & Waterdown)
Highway system
Ontario provincial highways Current Former 400-series
← Highway 4 → Highway 6
Former provincial highways Highway 5A  →

King's Highway 5, commonly referred to as Highway 5 and historically as the Dundas Highway and Governor's Road, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The east–west highway travels a distance of 12.7 km (7.9 mi) between Highway 8 at Peters Corners, north of Hamilton, and Highway 6 at Clappison's Corners. Prior to several sections being downloaded to the municipalities in which they were located, Highway 5 served as bypass to Highway 2, connecting with it in both Paris and Toronto, a distance of 114.3 km (71.0 mi).^[2]

Highway 5 followed a significant piece of Dundas Street (historically also called The Governor's Road), one of two routes constructed under the orders of John Graves Simcoe during his short tenure as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, the other being Yonge Street. The route was designated as part of the provincial highway system in 1920 and numbered as Highway 5 in 1925. Initially it travelled from Toronto to Clappison's Corners before turning south and following what would later become Highway 6 south through Hamilton and onwards to Jarvis. It was redirected west from Clappison's Corners to Peters Corners in 1927, and later to Paris in 1931.

Highway 5 was quickly engulfed by the growing outer suburbs of Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s, which led to various portions being transferred to local jurisdiction (though still signed as connecting links) over the years. The portions within Metropolitan Toronto were transferred in 1954, followed by portions through Mississauga in 1971, 1978 and 1991. By the 1990s, the provincially-maintained route only extended as far east as Highway 403; it was shortened to its present length in 1998.