King's Highway 417, commonly referred to as Highway 417 and as the Queensway through Ottawa, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. It connects Ottawa with Montreal via A-40, and is the backbone of the highway system in the National Capital Region. Within Ottawa, it forms part of the Queensway west from Highway 7 to Ottawa Road 174. Highway 417 extends from the Quebec border, near Hawkesbury, to Arnprior, where it continues westward as Highway 17. Aside from the urban section through Ottawa, Highway 417 passes through farmland that dominates much of the fertile Ottawa Valley. Within Ottawa, the Queensway was built as part of a grand plan for the city between 1957 and 1966, and later reconstructed to its present form throughout the 1980s. The eastern section, from Gloucester to the Quebec border, opened in 1975 in preparation for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Sections west of Ottawa have been under construction since the mid-1970s, with the section bypassing Arnprior opening on November 29, 2012 and another 5.3 km stretch in December 2016. Route description Highway 417 is a controlled-access highway that traverses the lower Ottawa Valley and upper St. Lawrence Valley, bypassing the generally two-lane Highway 17 and providing a high-speed connection between Montreal and Ottawa via A-40. The freeway has also gradually been extended northwest from Ottawa alongside the old highway to its current terminus in Arnprior. Highway 417 currently has 42 interchanges from the Quebec border to Arnprior, with more planned as the highway is extended westward. Unlike other highways in Ontario and most of North America, exits are numbered from east to west. While a significant portion of Highway 417 is a rural four lane freeway divided by a grass median, the section within urban Ottawa is a busy commuter route as wide as ten lanes. The portion of the route from the Highway 7 interchange east to the Split – a large four-way interchange between Highway 417, Ottawa Regional Road 174 and the Aviation Parkway – is known formally as the Queensway, although no indication of this name appears on any signage. The Queensway name continues along Ottawa Road174 from the split with Highway 417 east to Trim Road. Quebec to Ottawa Highway 417 begins at the border between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, east of which the four lane freeway continues as Autoroute 40. The route proceeds west, south of