so popular that in 1929 the Highway 3 and Highway 3A designations were swapped. In the early 1970s, as part of a review to determine the future route of Highway 406 south of Welland, proposals arose for a bypass of Highway 3 from east of Dunnville to Port Colborne near Highway 58. Essex Bypass The Essex Bypass was opened in stages in the 1970s and early 1980s. Plans were completed in 1968 as part of a province-wide program to bypass small towns on busy provincial highways. The first stage, opened by 1972, began west of Maidstone and passed south of Essex, where it then routed along Malden Road to its former alignment (now Essex County Road 34). Construction of an eastward extension to Ruthven was underway by 1982, and completed in 1983, with the road following Union Road to the old alignment. Construction of a final extension, from Union Road north of Ruthven to past Highway 77 on the northern fringe of Leamington, was underway in late 1998; it opened in early December 1999. Although the Leamington Bypass was constructed by the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), the segment east of Highway 77 to County Road 34 (Talbot Road) was never a part of Highway 3 or the provincial highway network. It is signed as Essex County Road 33, as Leamington is planning to link the discontinuous segments of County Road 33 with the East Side Arterial Road. St. Thomas Expressway The St. Thomas expressway was built along the northern edge of that city beginning in 1974. It features six overpasses and a single interchange, at First Avenue. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on September 7, 1981 to officially open the new route, which bypassed the former Highway 3 alignment along Talbot Street and the short concurrency with Highway 4 (Sunset Drive). The bypass cost C$16.5 million to construct, and features a two-lane roadway with allotted space on the north side for a second two-lane roadway. Plans originally called for the expressway to extend further east to New Sarum and later even as far as Aylmer, but these have never materialized. Downloads and changes since Aside from the Essex Bypass and St. Thomas Expressway, Highway 3 remained generally unchanged between the 1930s and late 1990s. However, budget constraints brought on by a recession in the 1990s resulted in the Mike Harris provincial government forming the Who Does What? committee to