Highway 427 Is Expanding This Weekend & It Could Cut Your Travel Time By 25 Minutes

Fasten your seatbelts, Ontario drivers: your commute down Highway 427 is about to get a lot faster.

Ontario announced that it's opening up a 10-kilometre expansion of Highway 427 this Saturday, September 18. The expansion will stretch from Finch Avenue to Major Mackenzie Drive in order to help with traffic flow and minimize congestion.

According to the provincial government's news release, the 427 expansion is expected to save commuters up to 25 minutes of travel time for a two-way trip compared to driving along neighbouring municipal roadways during those hectic peak traffic periods.

There's also a 6.6-kilometre extension of the highway that has eight new lanes from Highway 7 to Rutherford Road and six new lanes to Major Mackenzie Drive. Three new interchanges have also been added to connect roadways at Langstaff Road, Rutherford Road and Major Mackenzie Drive.

Additionally, a 4-kilometre segment from Finch to Highway 7 has also been widened up to eight lanes now.

Highway 427 is also soon going to have one High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane running in each direction to help ease traffic. The northbound HOV lane is placed between Highway 409 and Rutherford Road while the HOV going southbound starts just north of Rutherford Road and connects to an already existing HOV lane south of Finch Ave.

"The Highway 427 expansion will greatly benefit the people of Vaughan-Woodbridge," said Michael Tibollo, MPP for Vaughan and Woodbridge. "Not only will it help take vehicles causing crippling gridlock off our local roads, but it will also make our community safer while reducing travel times for commuters and commercial vehicles."

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