interchange opened on January 1, 1966, allowing travel in both directions over the canal. The final segment, linking the two section of the Queensway, was placed into service on October 28, 1966. Following this, the Highway 17 designation was applied along the Queensway and the old routing renumbered as Highway 17B. Bypasses and upgrades Although it was completed from Manitoba to Quebec in 1960, many upgrades to the original routing of Highway 17 had and would take place over the years. In addition to bypasses around almost every urban centre it encountered, many original sections have been downloaded to regional and local jurisdiction or decommissioned entirely to lie abandoned in the forest. Of special note are reroutings in the Ottawa Valley – where the highway follows very little of the original routing – and around Thunder Bay, where it has undergone several reroutings and upgrades since the 1920s. In the following section, upgrades are listed from west to east due to complex chronologies. Thunder Bay The original routing of Highway 17 travelled into Port Arthur along the Dawson Road, now Highway 102. Nipigon Highway 17 originally entered Red Rock along what is now Highway 628 before turning north alongside the Nipigon River north to Nipigon. Sault Ste. Marie Although the route into and out of Sault Ste. Marie has remained generally the same, Highway 17 has been rerouted through the city numerous times. In addition, to the east of the city, the route has been redirected onto a four lane at-grade expressway around Echo Bay. As recently as 2022, local government has reached out to the provincial government to revisit possibilities of creating a much needed bypass around Sault Ste. Marie—however this plan has long been stalled by the MTO and provincial government, largely due to the high cost of construction and uncertain demand; there has also been no environmental impact assessment to date. Espanola Sudbury The route of Highway 17 in Sudbury currently follows the Southwest and Southeast Bypasses through the south end of the city. Prior to the completion of this route, the highway followed what is now Municipal Road 55 through the downtown core. North Bay Upper Ottawa Valley Construction of the Renfrew Bypass began in June 1974, and continued for three years, opening in 1977. Ottawa Lower Ottawa Valley Elsewhere The last gravel stretches of Highway 17, between Kenora and Dryden and north of Batchawana Bay,