| ||||
Highway 403 highlighted in red | ||||
Route information | ||||
Maintained by Ministry of Transportation of Ontario | ||||
Length | 125.2 km[1] (77.8 mi) | |||
History | ||||
Major junctions | ||||
West end | ![]() | |||
| ||||
East end | ![]() | |||
Location | ||||
Country | Canada | |||
Province | Ontario | |||
Regions | Oxford, Brant, Halton, Peel | |||
Major cities | Woodstock, Brantford, Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga | |||
Highway system | ||||
|
King's Highway 403 (pronounced "four-oh-three"), or simply Highway 403, is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario that travels between Woodstock and Mississauga, branching off from and reuniting with Highway 401 at both ends and travelling south of it through Hamilton (where it is also known as the Chedoke Expressway) and Mississauga. It is concurrent with the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) for 22 km (14 mi) from Burlington to Oakville. The Highway 403 designation was first applied in 1963 to a short stub of freeway branching off the QEW, and the entire route was completed on August 15, 1997, when the section from Brantford to the then-still independent Town of Ancaster was opened to traffic. The section of Highway 403 between Woodstock and Burlington was formally dedicated as the Alexander Graham Bell Parkway on April 27, 2016, in honour of Alexander Graham Bell.
The majority of Highway 403 is surrounded by suburban land use, except west of Hamilton, where it passes through agricultural land; Brantford is the only urban area through this section. In Hamilton, Highway 403 descends the Niagara Escarpment, then wraps around the northern side of Hamilton Harbour to encounter the QEW. From there, co-signed with the QEW, it travels straight through Burlington and Oakville, departing from the QEW to the north at the Mississauga–Oakville boundary. The freeway then crosses through the centre of Mississauga in an east–west direction, serving its city centre. Turning north, Highway 403 splits up into a collector-express system, with the express lanes defaulting to Highway 401 east of that interchange, while the collector lanes thereafter continues north as Highway 410 to Brampton.