along Weber Street fought expropriation. Construction instead began in April 2002, which involved shifting one of the retaining walls further north and a new Franklin Street bridge to accommodate the eight lane cross-section freeway. Included with this project was a reconstruction of the bottle-necked interchange of the Conestoga Parkway and Highway8, including a new flyover ramp from westbound Conestoga Parkway to eastbound Highway8 to replace one of the two loop ramps, and realignment of the northbound to eastbound ramp. Both were completed and opened on June11, 2004. Construction began in 2012 to widen the parkway to six lanes from east of Courtland Avenue to west of Fischer-Hallman Road, including the installation of a median barrier. The C$130 million project was completed in 2016. Future Long term plans have called for the construction of a freeway link between Kitchener and Guelph, linking the Conestoga Parkway with the Hanlon Expressway (Highway 6). Although proposed in the 1980s, construction did not begin until 2015. Opposition arose due to the new alignment of this Highway7 freeway passing through environmentally sensitive lands. In particular, the $25 million cost of the interchange between the new freeway and the Conestoga Parkway; the high cost is partly due to land acquisition to accommodate the proposed flyover ramps. This represents a quarter of the projected C$100million budget for the total Highway7 project. The Victoria Street overpass was demolished overnight on February23–24, 2018, and was replaced with a new structure that reopened to traffic on October28; the new bridge is longer and has a higher elevation to accommodate the future ramps between Highway7 and the Conestoga Parkway. Exit list See also 400-series highways References External links Timelapse driving video of the Conestoga Parkway Roads in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo Ontario provincial highways Roads in Kitchener, Ontario Roads in Waterloo, Ontario