Assumption and paving

Highway 31 was first established as a provincial highway on July 2, 1927, when 32.6 kilometres (20.3 mi) of roads were assumed by the Department of Public Highways within the townships of Williamsburgh, Winchester and Mountain.^[2] The highway inexplicably ended at the Dundas–Carleton county boundary south of Vernon for the next decade.^[13] On July 29, 1936, the highway was extended 35.4 kilometres (22.0 mi) into Ottawa when the Metcalfe Road through Osgoode and Gloucester townships in Carleton County was assumed by the renamed Department of Highways (DHO); it was now 78.0 kilometres (48.5 mi) long.^[14]

While the Metcalfe Road was already fully paved by the time Highway 31 was established, the portion of the route assumed in 1927 was unpaved in its entirety.^[13] Paving of the highway with a concrete surface began in the early 1930s; the first portion, from Winchester north to the Dundas–Carleton county line, was completed in 1931, a distance of approximately 10.5 kilometres (6.5 mi).^[15] Just over 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) of the route, from Morrisburg to Williamsburg, was paved in 1933.^[16] This was followed in 1934 with another 7.25 kilometres (4.5 mi) of paving south from Winchester. The final 7.25-kilometre gap north of Williamsburg was paved in 1936.^[17][18]

Realignments and route changes

Highway 31 at Cass Bridge in 1931

While the southern terminus of Highway 31 was always at Highway 2, the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the late-1950s resulted in a substantial alteration to the route of the latter. Highway 2 originally followed what is now Lakeshore Drive, which was inundated in July 1958 by the rising waters of the seaway east of Morrisburg.^[19][20] Highway 2 was rerouted along the former CN railway right-of-way (itself moved further inland) prior to the flooding, with the new alignment opening to traffic in May 1958. As a result, Highway 31 was truncated by approximately 800 metres (2,600 ft).^[21]

Originally, Highway 31 entered into Winchester along St. Lawrence Street before turning west onto Main Street.^[22] As early as 1965, proposals for bypassing the village were raised.^[23] After lengthy delays over whether or not to cross a Canadian Pacific Railway line at-grade, among other issues, construction began on the bypass in 1972.^[24] Highway 31 and Highway 43 were rerouted on to the Winchester Bypass when it was opened on July 30, 1974.^[25]

Within Ottawa

When Highway 31 was extended to Ottawa in 1937, provincial jurisdiction ended at Billings Bridge, where Bank Street crossed the Rideau River and entered the city limits.^[14][26] The portion with Ottawa, which was maintained and signed under a Connecting Link agreement with the provincial government, initially followed Bank Street directly to the foot of Parliament Hill at Wellington Street. It became concurrent with Highways 17/15/16 north of Carling Avenue (renamed Glebe Avenue in 1974^[27]), and a secondary route of all four highways also followed Rideau Canal Drive (now the Queen Elizabeth Driveway) between Carling Avenue and Wellington Street via Elgin Street.^[28] The 1955 Ontario Road map shows a new routing through Ottawa for the first time, with all four concurrent highways turning east onto Rideau Canal Drive off Bank Street on the north side of the Rideau Canal. The 1956 edition of the map continues to show Highway 31 also following Bank Street to Wellington Street in addition to the portion along Rideau Canal Drive.^[29][30][31] In the 1960 edition, both routes were removed and Highway 31 was rerouted along Heron Road and Bronson Avenue to end at Highway 17 at Carling Avenue.^[32] This was altered in the 1964 edition, as Highway 17 was moved onto the partially-completed Queensway; Highway 31 and 16 now continued from Carling Avenue north to the Bronson Avenue interchange (now Exit 121A).^[33] It is unclear when Highway 31 was signed north of the Queensway to the Quebec boundary, but it is shown as the northern terminus in the 1989 Highways Distance Tables.^[34]

Downloading

As part of a series of budget cuts initiated by premier Mike Harris under his Common Sense Revolution platform in 1995, numerous highways deemed to no longer be of significance to the provincial network were decommissioned and responsibility for the routes transferred to a lower level of government, a process referred to as downloading. Due to its proximity to Highway 16, which was in the process of being upgraded to Highway 416, the entirety of Highway 31 was downloaded in 1997 and 1998. On April 1, 1997, 10.9 kilometres (6.8 mi) of the route, from Regional Road 8 (Mitch Owens Road) to the Ottawa city limits south of Regional Road 32 (Hunt Club Road), was transferred to the Regional Municipality of Ottawa–Carleton.^[3] On January 1, 1998, the remainder of the route was downloaded, including 18.6 kilometres (11.6 mi) to Ottawa–Carleton and 35.7 kilometres (22.2 mi) to the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.^[4]