King Street, Waterloo Region

King Street, or Waterloo Regional Road 15, is the major northwest–southeast arterial road in Kitchener, Ontario, as well as Waterloo, Ontario, where it runs north–south. In Waterloo, King Street divides the city into east and west sides, and in Kitchener, it divides the city into north and south sides. At the Conestoga Parkway, in southern Kitchener, King Street becomes the Highway 8 Expressway. King Street "resumes" about four kilometres to the east, where Weber Street is renamed to King Street and then continues to Cambridge, Ontario.

Route description

Downtown Kitchener

In Kitchener, the main segment of King Street starts at the Highway 8 Freeport Diversion, also known as Highway 8 Expressway, bend in an interchange with the Conestoga Parkway. After the Freeport Diversion passes under the Conestoga overpasses, the Highway 8 designation continues on the Conestoga west of the junction on the loop ramp, but going straight ahead defaults to King Street, which continues northwesterly through Downtown Kitchener and eventually to the boundary with Waterloo. East of the interchange, Conestoga Parkway serves as a bypass of King Street.

Although it runs southeast–northwest, King Street is labelled east–west since Kitchener originally developed relative to the Grand River based on the alignment of the Haldimand Tract, which runs north–south. The same is true for the other major north–south routes in the city (such as Weber Street), and the reverse is true for the major east–west arteries in the city (although they run east–west, they are labelled north–south). The intersection of King Street and Queen Street (which was the nucleus of the early community that would become Kitchener) in Downtown Kitchener is the point from which the city's street directions are determined.