Wonderland Road (London, Ontario)

Wonderland Road is a major north-south arterial road in London, Ontario.

History

Wonderland Road takes its name from the Wonderland Gardens concert hall located near Springbank Park. The present-day Wonderland Road corridor is made up of part or all of six London-area roads.

The original Wonderland Sideroad was a gravel road running between Southdale Road and the Thames River, with Wonderland Gardens located at the end of the road just before the river. In 1970, a major upgrade took place in conjunction with the new Westmount development, that saw the road widened to four lanes with a centre median south of Commissioners Road, and a new two-lane road south of Viscount Road that bypassed the existing road to the east, connecting at Southdale Road with the old Airport Road which ran south to Highway 135.

North of the Thames River, the modern-day Wonderland Road corridor consisted of: Hutton Sideroad, which existed from Riverside Drive north to the Sarnia Gravel Road; a north-south section of Sarnia Road which ran from Hutton Road and then continued westwards along today's Gainsborough Road; north of this point, Cameron Sideroad continued northward to Highway 7. Hutton Sideroad passed under the Canadian National Railway tracks via a one-lane subway located slightly west of the current wider subway, which was constructed in the late 1950s. At some point in the 1970s, Sarnia Road was realigned to continue westward from Hutton Road along Springhill Road, and Hutton Road was extended northward along the former section of Sarnia Road and Cameron Road.

In 1977, a new four-lane bridge was opened connecting Wonderland Road south of the river to Hutton Road north of the river. This bridge was named in memory of Londoner Guy Lombardo, who had recently passed away and had often played at nearby Wonderland Gardens. At the same time, a four-lane diversion was built to the west of the original alignment between Commissioners Road and Springbank Drive. Wonderland Road was now a continuous four-lane facility from Viscount Road to Kingsway Avenue. The four-lane section was extended north to just beyond Oxford Street in 1982.

In 1987, a new four-lane bridge was built over the Canadian Pacific Railway just south of Sarnia Road, replacing a two-lane level crossing. The four-lane section of Wonderland Road was further extended to Gainsborough Road in 1996, and a small section south of Fanshawe Park Road was widened to four lanes in 1998.

At the south end of the city, for many years Wonderland Road ended at Highway 135, later Exeter Road. The section between Southdale Road and Highway 135 was widened to four lanes in 1982 by Middlesex County, and the City of London widened the road north of Southdale to Viscount Road in the late 1980s. In 1997, a southerly extension joined Wonderland Road with Bostwick Road, which also crossed Highway 402. An interchange was constructed at Highway 402 at the same time.

Extension to Highway 401

There is currently a proposal to extend Wonderland Road to Highway 401 with a new interchange. This would likely coincide with the future widening of Highway 401 to six lanes. This is on a 5-10 year planning horizon.