[8][9] It travelled northerly, passing over the CN Kingston Subdivision next to Morrisburg Station,[10] a former Via Rail stop that was closed in 2021.

The route then enters the municipality of North Dundas at Winchester Springs, near which it crosses several creeks and irrigation drains.

It passes through the community of Cass Bridge, providing access to the conservation area of the same name, before encountering the eastern leg of former Highway 43.

Within the former Osgoode Township the highway bisected the village of Vernon and the community of Spring Hill before beginning to meander northeast.

[14] While the Metcalfe Road was already fully paved by the time Highway 31 was established, the portion of the route assumed in 1927 was unpaved in its entirety.

[13] Paving of the highway with a concrete surface began in the early 1930s; the first portion, from Winchester north to the Dundas–Carleton county line, was completed in 1931, a distance of approximately 10.5 kilometres (6.5 mi).

Highway 2 originally followed what is now Lakeshore Drive, which was inundated in July 1958 by the rising waters of the seaway east of Morrisburg.

[19][20] Highway 2 was rerouted along the former CN railway right-of-way (itself moved further inland) prior to the flooding, with the new alignment opening to traffic in May 1958.

[23] After lengthy delays over whether or not to cross a Canadian Pacific Railway line at-grade, among other issues, construction began on the bypass in 1972.

[25] When Highway 31 was extended to Ottawa in 1937, provincial jurisdiction ended at Billings Bridge, where Bank Street crossed the Rideau River and entered the city limits.

[34] As part of a series of budget cuts initiated by premier Mike Harris under his Common Sense Revolution platform in 1995, numerous highways deemed to no longer be of significance to the provincial network were decommissioned and responsibility for the routes transferred to a lower level of government, a process referred to as downloading.