on the west side of the city. It provided an alternate bypass to the Seaway International Bridge. The route was established in 1965 and remained in place for only two years before being decommissioned in 1967. London Highway 2A in London provided an alternative parallel route to Highway 2 through the downtown core, travelling from a concurrent Highway 2 and Highway 4 eastward along Stanley Street, York Street, Florence Street and finally Highbury Avenue. At its eastern end, it met Highway 2 (Dundas Street). The route was established in 1956 and decommissioned in 1968. Toronto–Newcastle The Toronto section of Highway 2A is the only one of the five iterations that is still evident and in use today. Although it is no longer provincially maintained, it is still referenced by its highway designation on signage. As automobile use in southern Ontario grew in the early twentieth century, road design and construction advanced significantly. Following frequent erosion of the former macadamized Lake Shore Road, a cement road known as the Toronto–Hamilton Highway was proposed in January 1914. By November 1914, the proposal was approved, and work began quickly to construct the road from Toronto to Hamilton known today as Lake Shore Boulevard and Lakeshore Road. The road was formally opened on November 24, 1917, wide and nearly long. It was the first concrete road in Ontario, as well as one of the longest stretches of concrete road between two cities in the world. Over the next decade, vehicle usage increased substantially, and by 1920 Lakeshore Road was again highly congested on weekends. In response, the Department of Highways examined improving another road between Toronto and Hamilton. Middle Road, a continuation of Queen Street west of the Humber River, was chosen to avoid delays on Dundas or Lakeshore. The road was to be more than twice the width of Lakeshore Road at , and would carry two lanes of traffic in either direction. Construction on what was then known as the Queen Street Extension (not to be confused with The Queensway) between Highway 10 and Highway 27 began in early 1931, and between Highway 27 and the Humber River on November 1, 1931. Before the highway could be completed, Thomas McQuesten was appointed the new minister of the Department of Highways, with Robert Melville Smith as deputy minister, following the 1934 provincial elections. Smith, inspired by the German Autobahn's—new "dual-lane divided highways"—modified the