Highway 7A (Ontario)
Encyclopedia
King's Highway 7A, commonly referred to as Highway 7A, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian
province of Ontario
that serves as a bypass of Highway 7
. The highway begins in the community of Manchester, where Highway 7 is concurrent
with Highway 12, and travels east through Port Perry, Nestleton Station, Bethany
and Cavan, ending at Highway 115 southwest of Peterborough
. From there, Highway 7 can be reached via Highway 115 northbound. Near its midpoint the route is concurrent with Highway 35 for 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi).
Highway 7A is 48.3 kilometres (30 mi) long, passing through the Regional Municipality of Durham, city of Kawartha Lakes
and Peterborough County. Outside of the communities it serves, the highway passes through generally agricultural areas, though it enters the Oak Ridges Moraine
near Highway 35.
The highway was designated in the 1930s in downtown Peterborough and shortly thereafter was extended west to Manchester. The causeways over Lake Scugog
date back to the 1850s, and were repeatedly reinforced over the course of a century to reach their current state. During the 1950s, the construction of Highway 115 caused the route of Highway 7A to be modified. At the end of the decade, the causeways were reconstructed for the final time. The eastern end of the highway was reconfigured several times before arriving at its current routing after the 1960s.
and providing a shorter and more direct southern route between Whitby
and Peterborough. It begins in the community of Manchester at an intersection with Highway 7 and Highway 12. West of this intersection, the road continues as Durham Regional Road 21 towards Stouffville. The highway travels northeast into the town of Port Perry, where it curves east and becomes Scugog Street.
Passing through the town, the highway serves as a commercial strip, centring around Simcoe Street. In the east end of the town, the highway passes several big-box retailers
before crossing the western arm of Lake Scugog on the Scugog Causeway.
On Scugog Island now, the highway first passes Island Road (Durham Regional Road 7), which leads to Great Blue Heron Casino
and the Mississaugas of Scugog Island reserve, then curves southeast and enters the Osler Marsh. It once continued east along what is now Reader Road and curved southeast at the end of that road. The modern route, constructed when the causeways were reinforced in the 1960s, lies south of the original route.
The route continues southeast across the Cartwright Causeway, separating the eastern arm of Lake Scugog from the marsh. After approximately a kilometre (0.6 miles), the highway curves east and continues for 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) to the end of the causeway. For the next 3.2 kilometres (2 mi), the highway travels straight to the east past farmland, then curves north near Blackstock. It intersects Durham Regional Road 57, which travels south to Bowmanville
. The two routes travels north concurrently with for 1.2 kilometre (0.745647283979768 mi) before Road 57 departs north towards Caesarea as Highway 7A gently curves east and passes through the former railway village of Nestleton Station.
Returning to farmland, the highway enters the northern tip of the Oak Ridges Moraine
and the terrain begins to undulate near the border between Durham Region and Kawartha Lakes
. Eventually, the farmland transitions into forests and the highway dives into and out of glacial ravines; these form the headwaters of the Pigeon River. The route intersects Highway 35 approximately 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) east of Nesleton Station; both highways travel south concurrently for 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) before Highway 7A branches east and Highway 35 continues south to Orono
and Newcastle
. A carpool parking lot is also available at this junction.
Highway 7A continues east through a valley-ridden region containing a mix of thick deciduous
forests and farmland. Shortly after passing the northern terminus of City Road 32 (Porter Road), the highway enters the village of Bethany, where it crosses the Victoria Rail Trail and intersects the southern terminus of City Road 38 (Ski Hill Road) before curving southeast and entering Peterborough County. The highway curves back to the east and passes through a final ravine. It crosses through farmland before entering the community of Cavan, where it meets County Road 10. Approximately 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) east of Cavan, Highway 7A ends at an interchange
with Highway 115, which itself intersects and becomes concurrent with Highway 7 approximately 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) northeast of this point, thereafter continuing into Peterborough.
, and has played an important role for over a century, although the highway was not designated until the 1930s. Joseph Bigelow, a businessman and later the Reeve of Port Perry and James Graham, Reeve of Scugog, played a significant role in the construction of two causeways
across the lake – the Scugog and the Cartwright Causeways. These were gradually reinforced over the span of a century (1856–1960) before reaching their present state, and now carry Highway 7A.
and his sons dam
med the Scugog River
in Lindsay
(Upstream from the current dam and locks) in 1834 to power his grist mill.
With the raised water levels, the highlands of Scugog Township became an island, separated from Cartwright Township to the southeast, and from Port Perry and Reach Township to the west. As a result, residents were forced to ferry across the lake during the summer and across the ice during the winter. The periods between were precarious, with many carts falling through the thawing ice and into the marsh. In 1852, Ontario County
was formed, and residents began to petition the new government for construction of a bridge from Port Perry across to the island. Scugog Township passed Bylaw No. 2 on February 25, 1856, which granted $1000 towards construction of a floating bridge.
The bridge proved to be an expensive burden, and for many years the responsibility for maintaining it was repeatedly shifted from township to county and back again. Ice would often carry away entire sections of the bridge during the spring thaw, requiring replanking or complete reconstruction. In the spring of 1876, work began to convert the first 180 metres (590.6 ft) of the Port Perry side of the floating bridge into a permanent embankment. Logs were placed along both sides the bridge and various materials piled between the them, sinking it into the soft soil below. Earth laid over top to provide a stable surface. The process also increased the width of the roadbed from 3.7 metres (12.1 ft) to 5.5 metres (18 ft).
Further construction on the Scugog Causeway met fierce opposition from county officials, who argued that the new method had not even faced a winter season. It took until July 1878 for work to resume, when Port Perry Reeve Joshua Wright managed to manipulate the county council, convincing them "to strike out the magnificent $150 [grant for seasonal maintenance which they had offered] and stipulate that 600 feet be filled in on the east end of the bridge." A contract for this work was tendered in June 1879, and completed one year later. Finally, in early 1885, work on the final 180 metres began. This work was completed in July, at which point repairs were carried out on the existing sections.
Construction of the 4.2 kilometres (2.6 mi) Cartwright Causeway took place after nearly two decades of effort by its chief promoter, Joseph Bigelow. Bigelow witnessed the business opportunity that the Scugog Bridge opened up, and wished to construct a second structure towards Blackstock, opening the Port Perry markets to the fertile agricultural land of Cartwright Township. He first approached the Ontario County council in 1872 with his proposal, but was refused the funding. The council agreed to set up a committee, through which Bigelow sought out investors. In 1882, the Lake Scugog Marsh Lands Drainage Company, which had purchased the marshlands south of the proposed causeway, approached Bigelow with an offer to build his causeway as part of their plans to drain the marsh. They required a small investment in order to proceed with the work, but council ultimately refused even this, forcing the company to sell off its lands.
Undeterred, Bigelow continued to accrue funds from other level of government and surrounding townships. By 1889, he had enough to begin work. Unlike the Scugog Bridge, Bigelow ensured that his structure would be permanent from the beginning and constructed a majority of the causeway by removing the top layer of peat from the marsh, piling logs in lengthwise approximately a metre deep and covering the exposed surface with the same depth of earth. By early 1891, the causeway was completed, and shortly thereafter trees were planted along both sides.
The combined 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) route quickly grew to be the main east–west transportation corridor in the area. However, due to the soft soils and clay on which the causeway was built, it sank at a continuous rate and still required maintenance to keep it above water during the spring thaw. In 1928, both causeways were reinforced, widened and heightened in response to growing automobile usage.
In May 1938, Highway 7A was extended west to Highway 7 and Highway 12 at Manchester via Bethany and Port Perry.
This created a concurrency with Highway 28 and brought the length of the highway to 68 kilometres (42.3 mi). The new extension was a gravel road
between Port Perry and Highway 28, but the section between Port Perry and Blackstock was paved by October 1939.
In late 1954, Highway 115 was opened between Highway 35 at Enterprise Hill and Highway 28 south of Springville. As a result, Highway 7A was rerouted concurrently along a short section of the new highway. Several highways were rerouted in 1960, including Highway 7, which was redirected at Fowlers Corners to curve south and meet Highway 28 near Springville; the former route became Highway 7B. At some point since then, Highway 7A was truncated at Highway 115 near Cavan, taking on its current routing.
During the late 1950's, spring flooding began to become problematic on both causeways, prompting the Department of Highways to reconstruct them and the approaches. Soil investigations were carried out over the length of the road in mid-1959, and in August 1960 contracts were tendered for construction. The existing causeways were both closed as the adjacent marsh was excavated up to 6 metres (19.7 ft) deep. Nearby properties were purchased for the sole purpose of excavating for earth for fill, which was trucked at a continuous rate. Over 8100000 cubic feet (229,366.5 m³) of organic material was removed from the marsh and 12494574 cubic feet (353,806.9 m³) of fill placed over several years of construction. As a result of this, the roadbed no longer sinks into the marsh and spring melt no longer poses an issue.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!scope="col"|Division
!scope="col"|Location
!scope="col"|km
!scope="col"|Destinations
!scope="col"|Notes
|-
|rowspan="5"|Durham Region
|Manchester
|0.0
|
|
|-
|Port Perry
|3.9
|
|
|-
|Scugog Island
|6.3
|
|Access to Mississaugas of Scugog Island and Great Blue Heron Casino
|-
|rowspan="2"|Blackstock
|11.5
|
|
|-
|14.8
|
|
|-
|rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Kawartha Lakes
|28.9
|
|Beginning of concurrency
with Highway 35
|-
|30.4
|
|End of concurrency
with Highway 35; Commuter parking available
|-
|Peterborough County
|Cavan
|48.3
|
|
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
province of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
that serves as a bypass of Highway 7
Ontario Highway 7
King's Highway 7, commonly referred to as Highway 7 and historically as the Northern Highway, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario...
. The highway begins in the community of Manchester, where Highway 7 is concurrent
Concurrency (road)
A concurrency, overlap, or coincidence in a road network is an instance of one physical road bearing two or more different highway, motorway, or other route numbers...
with Highway 12, and travels east through Port Perry, Nestleton Station, Bethany
Bethany, Ontario
Bethany is an unincorporated village in the Canadian province of Ontario, within the single-tier municipality of Kawartha Lakes. Bethany is centred on Highway 7A, which forms part of the Trans-Canada highway...
and Cavan, ending at Highway 115 southwest of Peterborough
Peterborough, Ontario
Peterborough is a city on the Otonabee River in southern Ontario, Canada, 125 kilometres northeast of Toronto. The population of the City of Peterborough was 74,898 as of the 2006 census, while the census metropolitan area has a population of 121,428 as of a 2009 estimate. It presently ranks...
. From there, Highway 7 can be reached via Highway 115 northbound. Near its midpoint the route is concurrent with Highway 35 for 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi).
Highway 7A is 48.3 kilometres (30 mi) long, passing through the Regional Municipality of Durham, city of Kawartha Lakes
Kawartha Lakes
The city of Kawartha Lakes is a unitary municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Although called a city, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typical Ontarian county and is mostly rural....
and Peterborough County. Outside of the communities it serves, the highway passes through generally agricultural areas, though it enters the Oak Ridges Moraine
Oak Ridges Moraine
The Oak Ridges Moraine is an ecologically important geological landform in the Mixedwood Plains of south-central Ontario, Canada. The moraine covers a geographic area of between Caledon and Rice Lake, near Peterborough...
near Highway 35.
The highway was designated in the 1930s in downtown Peterborough and shortly thereafter was extended west to Manchester. The causeways over Lake Scugog
Lake Scugog
Lake Scugog is an artificially flooded lake in Scugog Township between the town of Port Perry, Ontario and the town of Lindsay. The lake has been raised and lowered several times over its history. Though not technically part of the Kawarthas due to its shallow depths, it is often geographically...
date back to the 1850s, and were repeatedly reinforced over the course of a century to reach their current state. During the 1950s, the construction of Highway 115 caused the route of Highway 7A to be modified. At the end of the decade, the causeways were reconstructed for the final time. The eastern end of the highway was reconfigured several times before arriving at its current routing after the 1960s.
Route description
Highway 7A is a 48.3 kilometres (30 mi) highway which serves as an alternative route to Highway 7, bypassing LindsayLindsay, Ontario
Lindsay is a community of 19,361 people on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough...
and providing a shorter and more direct southern route between Whitby
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
and Peterborough. It begins in the community of Manchester at an intersection with Highway 7 and Highway 12. West of this intersection, the road continues as Durham Regional Road 21 towards Stouffville. The highway travels northeast into the town of Port Perry, where it curves east and becomes Scugog Street.
Passing through the town, the highway serves as a commercial strip, centring around Simcoe Street. In the east end of the town, the highway passes several big-box retailers
Big-box store
A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store...
before crossing the western arm of Lake Scugog on the Scugog Causeway.
On Scugog Island now, the highway first passes Island Road (Durham Regional Road 7), which leads to Great Blue Heron Casino
Great Blue Heron Casino
The Great Blue Heron Casino is located on Scugog Island, just east of the town of Port Perry, Ontario, and northeast of Toronto. Both the Casino and the land on which it is built are owned by the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation...
and the Mississaugas of Scugog Island reserve, then curves southeast and enters the Osler Marsh. It once continued east along what is now Reader Road and curved southeast at the end of that road. The modern route, constructed when the causeways were reinforced in the 1960s, lies south of the original route.
The route continues southeast across the Cartwright Causeway, separating the eastern arm of Lake Scugog from the marsh. After approximately a kilometre (0.6 miles), the highway curves east and continues for 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) to the end of the causeway. For the next 3.2 kilometres (2 mi), the highway travels straight to the east past farmland, then curves north near Blackstock. It intersects Durham Regional Road 57, which travels south to Bowmanville
Bowmanville, Ontario
Bowmanville is the largest community in the Municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario about 75 km east of Toronto and 15 km east of Oshawa along Highway 2...
. The two routes travels north concurrently with for 1.2 kilometre (0.745647283979768 mi) before Road 57 departs north towards Caesarea as Highway 7A gently curves east and passes through the former railway village of Nestleton Station.
Returning to farmland, the highway enters the northern tip of the Oak Ridges Moraine
Oak Ridges Moraine
The Oak Ridges Moraine is an ecologically important geological landform in the Mixedwood Plains of south-central Ontario, Canada. The moraine covers a geographic area of between Caledon and Rice Lake, near Peterborough...
and the terrain begins to undulate near the border between Durham Region and Kawartha Lakes
Kawartha Lakes
The city of Kawartha Lakes is a unitary municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Although called a city, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typical Ontarian county and is mostly rural....
. Eventually, the farmland transitions into forests and the highway dives into and out of glacial ravines; these form the headwaters of the Pigeon River. The route intersects Highway 35 approximately 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) east of Nesleton Station; both highways travel south concurrently for 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) before Highway 7A branches east and Highway 35 continues south to Orono
Orono
Orono is the name of three communities:Canada*Orono, Ontario, a town in the Municipality of ClaringtonUnited States*Orono, Maine, a town in Penobscot County, home to the University of Maine*Orono, Minnesota, a city in Hennepin County...
and Newcastle
Newcastle, Ontario
Newcastle is a community in the Municipality of Clarington in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The Town of Newcastle was also the original name of what is now Clarington....
. A carpool parking lot is also available at this junction.
Highway 7A continues east through a valley-ridden region containing a mix of thick deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
forests and farmland. Shortly after passing the northern terminus of City Road 32 (Porter Road), the highway enters the village of Bethany, where it crosses the Victoria Rail Trail and intersects the southern terminus of City Road 38 (Ski Hill Road) before curving southeast and entering Peterborough County. The highway curves back to the east and passes through a final ravine. It crosses through farmland before entering the community of Cavan, where it meets County Road 10. Approximately 1.5 kilometre (0.93205910497471 mi) east of Cavan, Highway 7A ends at an interchange
Interchange (road)
In the field of road transport, an interchange is a road junction that typically uses grade separation, and one or more ramps, to permit traffic on at least one highway to pass through the junction without directly crossing any other traffic stream. It differs from a standard intersection, at which...
with Highway 115, which itself intersects and becomes concurrent with Highway 7 approximately 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) northeast of this point, thereafter continuing into Peterborough.
History
The history of Highway 7A is largely connected to that of Lake ScugogLake Scugog
Lake Scugog is an artificially flooded lake in Scugog Township between the town of Port Perry, Ontario and the town of Lindsay. The lake has been raised and lowered several times over its history. Though not technically part of the Kawarthas due to its shallow depths, it is often geographically...
, and has played an important role for over a century, although the highway was not designated until the 1930s. Joseph Bigelow, a businessman and later the Reeve of Port Perry and James Graham, Reeve of Scugog, played a significant role in the construction of two causeways
Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
across the lake – the Scugog and the Cartwright Causeways. These were gradually reinforced over the span of a century (1856–1960) before reaching their present state, and now carry Highway 7A.
Development
Lake Scugog was created when William PurdyWilliam Purdy
William "Bill" Frederick Purdy was a provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1986. During his time in office he sat with the governing Progressive Conservative party...
and his sons dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
med the Scugog River
Scugog River
The Scugog River is a river in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario which flows north from Lake Scugog to empty into Sturgeon Lake on the Trent-Severn Waterway....
in Lindsay
Lindsay, Ontario
Lindsay is a community of 19,361 people on the Scugog River in the Kawartha Lakes region of south-eastern Ontario, Canada. It is approximately west of Peterborough...
(Upstream from the current dam and locks) in 1834 to power his grist mill.
With the raised water levels, the highlands of Scugog Township became an island, separated from Cartwright Township to the southeast, and from Port Perry and Reach Township to the west. As a result, residents were forced to ferry across the lake during the summer and across the ice during the winter. The periods between were precarious, with many carts falling through the thawing ice and into the marsh. In 1852, Ontario County
Ontario County, Ontario
Ontario County was the name of two historic counties in the Canadian province of Ontario.The original Ontario County existed from 1792 to 1800 as part of the Eastern District, and consisted of the islands in the St. Lawrence River...
was formed, and residents began to petition the new government for construction of a bridge from Port Perry across to the island. Scugog Township passed Bylaw No. 2 on February 25, 1856, which granted $1000 towards construction of a floating bridge.
The bridge proved to be an expensive burden, and for many years the responsibility for maintaining it was repeatedly shifted from township to county and back again. Ice would often carry away entire sections of the bridge during the spring thaw, requiring replanking or complete reconstruction. In the spring of 1876, work began to convert the first 180 metres (590.6 ft) of the Port Perry side of the floating bridge into a permanent embankment. Logs were placed along both sides the bridge and various materials piled between the them, sinking it into the soft soil below. Earth laid over top to provide a stable surface. The process also increased the width of the roadbed from 3.7 metres (12.1 ft) to 5.5 metres (18 ft).
Further construction on the Scugog Causeway met fierce opposition from county officials, who argued that the new method had not even faced a winter season. It took until July 1878 for work to resume, when Port Perry Reeve Joshua Wright managed to manipulate the county council, convincing them "to strike out the magnificent $150 [grant for seasonal maintenance which they had offered] and stipulate that 600 feet be filled in on the east end of the bridge." A contract for this work was tendered in June 1879, and completed one year later. Finally, in early 1885, work on the final 180 metres began. This work was completed in July, at which point repairs were carried out on the existing sections.
Construction of the 4.2 kilometres (2.6 mi) Cartwright Causeway took place after nearly two decades of effort by its chief promoter, Joseph Bigelow. Bigelow witnessed the business opportunity that the Scugog Bridge opened up, and wished to construct a second structure towards Blackstock, opening the Port Perry markets to the fertile agricultural land of Cartwright Township. He first approached the Ontario County council in 1872 with his proposal, but was refused the funding. The council agreed to set up a committee, through which Bigelow sought out investors. In 1882, the Lake Scugog Marsh Lands Drainage Company, which had purchased the marshlands south of the proposed causeway, approached Bigelow with an offer to build his causeway as part of their plans to drain the marsh. They required a small investment in order to proceed with the work, but council ultimately refused even this, forcing the company to sell off its lands.
Undeterred, Bigelow continued to accrue funds from other level of government and surrounding townships. By 1889, he had enough to begin work. Unlike the Scugog Bridge, Bigelow ensured that his structure would be permanent from the beginning and constructed a majority of the causeway by removing the top layer of peat from the marsh, piling logs in lengthwise approximately a metre deep and covering the exposed surface with the same depth of earth. By early 1891, the causeway was completed, and shortly thereafter trees were planted along both sides.
The combined 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) route quickly grew to be the main east–west transportation corridor in the area. However, due to the soft soils and clay on which the causeway was built, it sank at a continuous rate and still required maintenance to keep it above water during the spring thaw. In 1928, both causeways were reinforced, widened and heightened in response to growing automobile usage.
King's Highway
By 1934, the Department of Highways assumed Lansdowne Street in Peterborough as Highway 7A, providing an alternate route south of downtown. At that point in time, Highway 7 entered Peterborough by following Lindsay Street east from Fowlers Corners to Chemong Road and curving southeast. It followed Chemong Road to Reid Street, which it then followed south. The route proceeded west along McDonnel Street and south along George Street to Lansdowne Street, which it followed east out of Peterborough. Highway 28 entered Peterborough from the west along Lansdowne Street, curving north at what is now Ford Street. It followed this onto what is now Clonsilla Avenue, and curved east onto Charlotte Street, which it followed to George Street. Highway 7A thus provided a direct route between Highway 28 and Highway 7 south of Peterborough.In May 1938, Highway 7A was extended west to Highway 7 and Highway 12 at Manchester via Bethany and Port Perry.
This created a concurrency with Highway 28 and brought the length of the highway to 68 kilometres (42.3 mi). The new extension was a gravel road
Gravel road
A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the United States. In New Zealand, they are known as 'metal roads'...
between Port Perry and Highway 28, but the section between Port Perry and Blackstock was paved by October 1939.
In late 1954, Highway 115 was opened between Highway 35 at Enterprise Hill and Highway 28 south of Springville. As a result, Highway 7A was rerouted concurrently along a short section of the new highway. Several highways were rerouted in 1960, including Highway 7, which was redirected at Fowlers Corners to curve south and meet Highway 28 near Springville; the former route became Highway 7B. At some point since then, Highway 7A was truncated at Highway 115 near Cavan, taking on its current routing.
During the late 1950's, spring flooding began to become problematic on both causeways, prompting the Department of Highways to reconstruct them and the approaches. Soil investigations were carried out over the length of the road in mid-1959, and in August 1960 contracts were tendered for construction. The existing causeways were both closed as the adjacent marsh was excavated up to 6 metres (19.7 ft) deep. Nearby properties were purchased for the sole purpose of excavating for earth for fill, which was trucked at a continuous rate. Over 8100000 cubic feet (229,366.5 m³) of organic material was removed from the marsh and 12494574 cubic feet (353,806.9 m³) of fill placed over several years of construction. As a result of this, the roadbed no longer sinks into the marsh and spring melt no longer poses an issue.
Major intersections
The following table lists the major intersections located along Highway 7A.{| class="wikitable"
|-
!scope="col"|Division
!scope="col"|Location
!scope="col"|km
!scope="col"|Destinations
!scope="col"|Notes
|-
|rowspan="5"|Durham Region
|Manchester
|0.0
|
|
|-
|Port Perry
|3.9
|
|
|-
|Scugog Island
|6.3
|
|Access to Mississaugas of Scugog Island and Great Blue Heron Casino
Great Blue Heron Casino
The Great Blue Heron Casino is located on Scugog Island, just east of the town of Port Perry, Ontario, and northeast of Toronto. Both the Casino and the land on which it is built are owned by the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation...
|-
|rowspan="2"|Blackstock
|11.5
|
|
|-
|14.8
|
|
|-
|rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Kawartha Lakes
Kawartha Lakes
The city of Kawartha Lakes is a unitary municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Although called a city, Kawartha Lakes is the size of a typical Ontarian county and is mostly rural....
|28.9
|
|Beginning of concurrency
Concurrency (road)
A concurrency, overlap, or coincidence in a road network is an instance of one physical road bearing two or more different highway, motorway, or other route numbers...
with Highway 35
|-
|30.4
|
|End of concurrency
Concurrency (road)
A concurrency, overlap, or coincidence in a road network is an instance of one physical road bearing two or more different highway, motorway, or other route numbers...
with Highway 35; Commuter parking available
|-
|Peterborough County
|Cavan
|48.3
|
|