Ontario Highway 39

Highway 39 was one of several provincial highways intended to funnel traffic from the border crossings in Windsor through Essex County.[9] The concept for a "Blue Water Highway" along the shores of the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and thenceforth to Chatham alongside the Thames River was first made by the town of Belle River in 1927.[10][11] Noting that the route was already paved,[12] this premise was presented to the Department of Highways (DHO), predecessor to the modern Ministry of Transportation, multiple times over the next several years,[13] with the province opting instead to build and improve the Provincial Road (now Essex County Road 46),[14] and later the Base Line Road (now Essex County Road 42).[15] Despite this, the highway along Tecumseh Road and the lakefront continued to be lobbied for by local merchants and governments into the 1930s.[16][17][18]

The DHO finally agreed to take over the route, assuming control over 22.9 kilometres (14.2 mi) of roads through Maidstone, Rochester and Sandwich East townships on July 11, 1934. The new highway began at the Windsor–Ford City boundary at Drouillard Road, and proceeded east along Tecumseh Road; the sections through the towns of Tecumseh and Belle River were designated as Connecting Links.[19] Within Windsor, the highway was signed along local roads (Tecumseh Road and Ouellette Avenue) to the Detroit–Windsor tunnel.[20]

In 1939, several renumberings took place in Essex County. Following pressure by the Essex County Automobile Club to number all three highways between Windsor and Tilbury as #2,[21] Highway 39 was redesignated as Highway 2B in January.[22] Two months later, the province instituted a change to its "numbering" policy in which lettered suffixes would only be used for short feeder routes and not for long distance routes. Consequently, Highway 2B became Highway 39 again, effective March 18.[23]

Traffic levels increased over the following decades, with two at-grade crossings of the Michigan Central Railroad becoming the site of frequent deadly accidents. In August 1951, the towns of Tecumseh and Belle River petitioned the DHO to construct a bypass along the south side of the tracks, avoiding both crossings.[24] The DHO opted to install automated signals and gates instead. The towns made a second request in March 1955,[25] to which the DHO agreed to conduct a survey into the need for a bypass that summer.[26] Plans were developed for the highway over the following years, including a proposal to connect the bypass with the proposed E.C. Row Avenue extension in 1957.[27]

The western end of Highway 39 was expanded from two to four lanes from Jefferson Avenue to Tecumseh in 1957 and 1958.[28] In April 1958, the DHO announced that it would procced with constructing the bypass, as it was not possible to widen the existing highway through Tecumseh.[29][30] Concurrent with construction of the new bypass, which began in the fall of 1959, the highway was widened through Belle River.[31][32] The existing route through Tecumseh and Pike Creek was rehabilitated as part of the work.[32] The Highway 39 Bypass was opened the week of November 20, 1961.[33] The provincial portion of the former route through Tecumseh, east of Manning Road, became Highway 39B briefly before being decommissioned on August 10, 1962.[34][35]

As part of a larger reorganisation of highways in Essex County following the completion of Highway 401,Highway 2 west of the Highway 39 intersections near Belle River was transferred to Essex County on June 1, 1970.[1] Consequently, Highway 39 was renumbered as a continuation of Highway 2 into Windsor.[2]

Westward view of the recently widened Highway 39 at Riverside in 1958