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[doofy103]

I finally drove the new US 7 Brookfield Bypass yesterday, and I must say that a fine job was done with the bypass, including the use of rock as a sound wall.

I just drove it myself - agree completely.  Very scenic, and designed to an appropriate speed.  It ends very well, tying into an extended four-lane divided arterial at the north end that lasts for several miles (up to 7/202 split I think?).  There will be video forthcoming sometime in the first half of this year....

The Danbury News-Times has a "news from 25 years ago" section.  One of the headlines was about a new legislative push for the US-7 Expressway extension in 1985.  See below in bold:

"From The News-Times files
25 years ago
The legislative push for an improved Route 7 from Brookfield to New Milford breathes fresh life into a project that has lain dormant since the late 1970s. State Department of Transportation officials say immediate improvements to the existing road are necessary, but the long-term solution is still an expressway from the end of Super 7 south of the Four Corners intersection in Brookfield to north of the traffic circle (US202, CT-67 Split) in New Milford.

State Sen. James McLaughlin, R-Woodbury, who is the Senate chairman of the Joint Finance Committee, said he is pushing to get a Super 7 built by 1991. His efforts are supported by Sen. Adela Eads, R-Kent; Rep. Oskar Rogg, R-New Milford; and Rep. M. Jodi Rell, R-Brookfield.

A variety of ideas for Super 7 have been tossed around for nearly two decades, but legislators believe the most feasible is a limited access, two-lane road running several hundred yards to the west of the existing Route 7.

Exit and entrance ramps would be built off the new expressway to connect with the existing Route 7 at the Four Corners (CT-25) intersection in Brookfield and the Lanesville and Sullivan Road intersection in New Milford."

Of course we know, the highway wasn't built by 1991 but 2009.  Today the highway didn't go to US-202 & CT-67 and is 4-lanes instead of a Super-2.   Also, there is no interchange with CT-25 (Four Corners) or Lanesville or Sullivan Road in New Milford.  Interesting to read what was talked about and what became reality.
__________________________

Also an article about the new US-7 & I-84 Interchange at Exit 3 in cooperation with the widening of I-84 from 4 to 6 lanes in 1985 and the new Danbury Fair Mall.  See below in bold:

"Construction of a new Route 7-Interstate 84 interchange in Danbury will take another step forward this month, when the state begins seeking bids for the $33 million project. On the present schedule, the interchange will be completed about the time the new Danbury Fair mall opens in October 1986."

This was completed on time.  I-84 was widened from 4 to 6 lanes by 1988 and the new US-7 Interchange was complete by the time the mall opened in 1986.  Now the expressway is being extended south of here...well sorta.

The DOT is building a twin bridge and full diamond interchange over Wooster Heights Road to compliment the US-7 4-laning that goes down to Ridgefield and CT-35.  So technically the expressway portion is being extended through the Wooster Heights Road interchange.

[Steve]

Super 7 refers to the 4-lane expressway.  There were never plans for a VT-style Super 2.  ( I say VT style because that's the only state that has one on US 7.)

[doofy103]

More news on the Q-Bridge project in New Haven.  The CT-34 Flyover and the eastern half on the I-91. I-95, CT-34 interchange should be completed by April.


http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/02/23/news/new_haven/a1_--_dot_openhouse_0224.txt#blogcomments

[doofy103]

Route 11 is dead until the TIP expires in 4 years....to come all this way for it to stop again.  It's like it was 1972 when the project stopped due to lack of funds.  It's like a vicious cycle.

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/carousel/x723438848/State-says-Route-11-work-will-have-to-keep-waiting

Also, some new maps about the widening of I-84 from Waterbury to Danbury.
http://www.i-84eis.com/PDFs/Alt%203/index%20of%20proposed%20lanes%20pdf's.pdf
click on each section for a detailed close up.

[MikeTheActuary]

A public workshop was held this past week in Hartford on replacing the I-84 "Aetna" viaduct. 

Presentation from the workshop is available here, and the Courant ran an article as well.

[doofy103]

I-91 South to I-95 South is now a two lane merge!  
Video and article here. It opened one day early!


http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/traffic/traffic_news/two-lanes-open-from-i-91-to-i-95-south

Noticeon the WTNH video, the old signage is still there saying "right lane ends" and that the BGS I-95 South sign still points to one lane.  I hope they change the signage so drivers know it's a two-lane exit now? But, CT has done that before, make you change into one lane via signage only to realize you didn't have to change lanes anyhow.


South of here I-95 is 5 lanes SB until Exit 46. It was supposed to be widened in Long-Wharf NB between exits 45-47 but NH said it would ruin town character.  It's going to be 10-lanes north of Exit 47 anyway. Dumb politicians. Mass transit freaks and politicans get scared by the way it looks on paper.

From the New Haven paper:
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/04/16/news/doc4bc84a7eb8ac9206242872.txt

Of course it's all part of the 10-Lane Q-Bridge porject.

[doofy103]

Also the 4-laning of US-7 in WIlton is all complete.

[Duke87]

Also the 4-laning of US-7 in WIlton is all complete.

Yup. Has been for a couple months.

Fun note: the wider road made people start driving faster... but the speed limit wasn't raised. The Wilton Police of course saw fit to cash in on this, and handed out some ridiculous number of citations in the first week after the new road fully opened.

[doofy103]

More on the new I-95/I-91 two-lane merge.  Updated New Haven Register article.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/04/15/news/new_haven/aa1_new_haven_mergeopen041510.txt

[shadyjay]

Noticeon the WTNH video, the old signage is still there saying "right lane ends" and that the BGS I-95 South sign still points to one lane.  I hope they change the signage so drivers know it's a two-lane exit now? But, CT has done that before, make you change into one lane via signage only to realize you didn't have to change lanes anyhow.

I drove through the interchange today, I-91 SB to I-95 NB, at 5pm.  Traffic was heavy up to 1/2 mile back from the "merge" but moved quite well.  As I left 91 onto 95NB, I noticed the last BGS on 91 has been changed... the "LANE ENDS MERGE LEFT" sign is gone and the single arrow on the 95SB pullthrough now has 2 arrows.  BGSs before this last one still have 1 arrow on the pullthrus.

[doofy103]

I just found this:  CT wants to revamp the eastern end of I-384 and make it transition more nicely into surface streets.  The current end is more high-speed as I-384 was intended to go much further east.

I think there are more pressing interchanges that need to be addressed than this.  There isn't much traffic out here, also the plans are to degrade the last 1/2 mile of the expressway into a 4-lane median divided blvd.  

In one section they want to make the NB on ramp from Routes 44/6 into a left hand on-ramp rather than the current, and up to current design standards, flyover right hand on-ramp.  (pages 2)

http://www.crcog.org/publications/Rt6CorridorStudy/InterchangeRegonfigSummary20090914.pdf

Current location on bing maps

And the best part, on page 3, it calls for a sidewalk or bike path...yeah who is going to use that!?!?! It's in the middle of nowhere. One of the times, "Hey it looks good and politically correct on paper, but in reality it's a waste."

fixed a screen stretch (dang, SMF still allows those??  Or, firefox does, for that matter?)

[Duke87]

Well, so much for connecting it to the Willmantic bypass...

[doofy103]

Well, so much for connecting it to the Willmantic bypass...

Yes, the plan to connect to Willimantic was scrapped in 2001, because the state and Army Corps of Engineers couldn't get together on the highway path.  I believe the EIS was even finished! So, instead of ironing out the details, the DOT put it off and here we are today.  Route 11 could meet the same fate....again.

[shadyjay]

Plan A makes more sense to me, though it still doesn't provide a direct connection from 44W to 6E.  The simple solution of course is to just cul-de-sac Notch Road and maybe improve the 384E->6E connection.  But there are more important projects which would benefit a lot more people and are more of a safety risk:  Route 9 in Middletown, ConnDOT - HELLO????

[wytout]

Sometime over the past week, on I84 WB in east hartford crossing into hartofrd on the bulkely bridge, lane markings have been added with giant painted shields and arrows in the lanes. I-84 (carry through) accompanying giant up pointing arrows, US 44 accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lane, and I 91 shield accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lanes.  I'll try to get some shots soon.  I've never seen anything like it.  They repeat about 3 times in the half mile or so leading up to these bunched interchanges.

[doofy103]

Sometime over the past week, on I84 WB in east hartford crossing into hartofrd on the bulkely bridge, lane markings have been added with giant painted shields and arrows in the lanes. I-84 (carry through) accompanying giant up pointing arrows, US 44 accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lane, and I 91 shield accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lanes.  I'll try to get some shots soon.  I've never seen anything like it.  They repeat about 3 times in the half mile or so leading up to these bunched interchanges.

I heard about that in other states. It's a typical interstate shield painted in the lanes?  I heard western states and NY does that in spots.

Wow, I'm suprised CT jumped on it so fast.  I wonder if it's a trial run or will this pop up in other areas? 
Yes, get pics soon! That would be great!

[Steve]

Sometime over the past week, on I84 WB in east hartford crossing into hartofrd on the bulkely bridge, lane markings have been added with giant painted shields and arrows in the lanes. I-84 (carry through) accompanying giant up pointing arrows, US 44 accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lane, and I 91 shield accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lanes.  I'll try to get some shots soon.  I've never seen anything like it.  They repeat about 3 times in the half mile or so leading up to these bunched interchanges.

I heard about that in other states. It's a typical interstate shield painted in the lanes?  I heard western states and NY does that in spots.

Wow, I'm suprised CT jumped on it so fast.  I wonder if it's a trial run or will this pop up in other areas? 
Yes, get pics soon! That would be great!

MD I-695 WB at I-97 was the first I saw.  I've seen a couple others, including NJ 4 WB at NJ 17 in my own state.  This is good news!

[doofy103]

More on the I-95, I-91, CT-34 Interchange reconstruction from the New Haven Register.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/04/25/news/new_haven/doc4bd3b44f1276d148536376.txt

[jon daly]

Sometime over the past week, on I84 WB in east hartford crossing into hartofrd on the bulkely bridge, lane markings have been added with giant painted shields and arrows in the lanes. I-84 (carry through) accompanying giant up pointing arrows, US 44 accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lane, and I 91 shield accompanying turn arrows in the exit only lanes.  I'll try to get some shots soon.  I've never seen anything like it.  They repeat about 3 times in the half mile or so leading up to these bunched interchanges.

I drove by this yesterday just to check it out.  How do you take good pics of something like this?  It's not like you can pull over to the side, get out of the car and snap away.  They're on a bridge.

[MikeTheActuary]

I drove by this yesterday just to check it out.  How do you take good pics of something like this?  It's not like you can pull over to the side, get out of the car and snap away.  They're on a bridge.

I can offer two ideas:

1.  Let ConnDOT do the work for you
2.  See if you can get a screen cap of the Fox61 morning news traffic report.  Same cam, higher resolution.

[shadyjay]

Wow - never seen anything like that!  Wonder if they'll go on I-91 in Hartford, where its the same setup as I-84 (several lanes but only two are thru, the others for the other interstates and such).  Guess it makes sense - but how long will they last, especially after their first winter?   (salt, sand, plowing, etc)

[wytout]

Wow - never seen anything like that!  Wonder if they'll go on I-91 in Hartford, where its the same setup as I-84 (several lanes but only two are thru, the others for the other interstates and such).  Guess it makes sense - but how long will they last, especially after their first winter?   (salt, sand, plowing, etc)

Still haven't managed to get back through there for pics... but some of the thoughts you all had ran through my head too... these are different, new, CT did something kinda new???? but alas, will they really last more then a few months of being pounded by cars and trucks?

[kurumi]

May 30, 2010: the News-Times [Danbury, Conn.] accompanies a story about traffic on the new Brookfield Bypass (US 7) with a supposed aerial photo of US 7 at a folded diamond interchange in the forest. It's nowhere on the new bypass; in fact, it's nowhere on US 7 at all. Sharp eyes in the story comments figured out where it actually is.

[deathtopumpkins]

Annoyingly enough, that's actually fairly common with news agencies. WAVY-TV, my local NBC affiliate, routinely uses a picture of a congested Chinese (I believe) freeway to accompany road-related articles, which even has license plates and signs that are obviously not in English visible.

[Duke87]

The simple fact of the matter is that in the era of the internet, where sites tend to constantly rush to get news posted as soon as they can, the extra 20 minutes to go out and take a picture of the actual highway to use isn't worth it. Just use the stock photo, most people won't notice or think anything of it!

Typos and grammatical errors in news articles have become more common for the same reason. No time to copy edit that, just post it, hurry!