Connecticut News

[RobbieL2415]

I-91 Exit 29 Construction update:

-Delivery of drain culverts and pipes has arrived
-Another bridge support for the flyover is being poured
-Lane shift is in effect CT 15 NB past exit 91
-Median of I-91 is being excavated.

Unrelated: CT 15 is getting new lamp fixtures and LED lights from the Berlin Turnpike to the COB.

[KEVIN_224]

They took absolutely forever replacing streetlights along CT Route 9 and the Willow Brook Connector (unsigned CT Route 571) in Berlin this year.

[jp the roadgeek]

They took absolutely forever replacing streetlights along CT Route 9 and the Willow Brook Connector (unsigned CT Route 571) in Berlin this year.

They are also replacing them on CT 72 east of I-84.  I assume they're replacing most lights along the extent of the re-signing projects that will take place next year (at least where they exist; there are a couple stretches on Route 9 between East Berlin and Middletown where they do not)/

[jp the roadgeek]

Bumping for this.  Just saw it on WFSB Channel 3 news.

https://www.wfsb.com/news/changes-coming-to-exit-numbers-along-some-ct-highways/article_52eead2e-2da6-11ea-a4bb-bb63d3df2e72.html

[The Ghostbuster]

I wish they'd make the sequential-to-mileage-based exit renumbering project move at a much faster pace, but from what I've heard about Connecticut, the state prefers a slower-than-a-snail pace for everything.

[MikeTheActuary]

Bumping for this.  Just saw it on WFSB Channel 3 news.

https://www.wfsb.com/news/changes-coming-to-exit-numbers-along-some-ct-highways/article_52eead2e-2da6-11ea-a4bb-bb63d3df2e72.html

You beat me to it.  Shame the video isn't online, as it was complete with people complaining "this change makes no sense".

The theme in the broadcast coverage was "it's happening whether we want it to or not" and "the feds are paying for it".

[KEVIN_224]

Remember, we are The Land Of Steady Habits! Cue this: 

[jp the roadgeek]

Video is online now.  The main selling point is federal funding with all the reckless hullabaloo going on with rampant state spending.  Just so ridiculous that RI and MA can get it done in 2 years while CT takes 10.  But then again, we were the last state in the northeast to raise the speed limit from 55, the last to allow Sunday liquor sales, and will probably be the last ones to the table on sports betting. 

[bob7374]

Video is online now.  The main selling point is federal funding with all the reckless hullabaloo going on with rampant state spending.  Just so ridiculous that RI and MA can get it done in 2 years while CT takes 10.  But then again, we were the last state in the northeast to raise the speed limit from 55, the last to allow Sunday liquor sales, and will probably be the last ones to the table on sports betting. 

IIRC, I-95 was to be one of the last routes with exit renumbering. RIDOT now says they plan to change their I-95 exits by the end of 2020, Mass. should be done by 2022. I get the feeling that this won't change ConnDOT's mind to complete their work sooner.

[Alps]

Video is online now.  The main selling point is federal funding with all the reckless hullabaloo going on with rampant state spending.  Just so ridiculous that RI and MA can get it done in 2 years while CT takes 10.  But then again, we were the last state in the northeast to raise the speed limit from 55, the last to allow Sunday liquor sales, and will probably be the last ones to the table on sports betting. 

Don't tell the sheeple who pays federal taxes.

[Mr. Matté]

However & regardless of what tolling plan in is ultimately decided upon, federal permission for (partially) tolling existing free Interstates still needs to be sought & approved before the first AET gantry on any Interstate in CT is erected.

Is this applicable to the parts of 95 and 395 that were the Connecticut Turnpike and formerly tolled? I believe there was something following the Mianus River Bridge collapse where the feds did help pay for the bridge replacement and required that tolls be removed at least there but I don't know if that edict applied to the whole highway.

[jp the roadgeek]

However & regardless of what tolling plan in is ultimately decided upon, federal permission for (partially) tolling existing free Interstates still needs to be sought & approved before the first AET gantry on any Interstate in CT is erected.

Is this applicable to the parts of 95 and 395 that were the Connecticut Turnpike and formerly tolled? I believe there was something following the Mianus River Bridge collapse where the feds did help pay for the bridge replacement and required that tolls be removed at least there but I don't know if that edict applied to the whole highway.

It applies to all roads, including those that were formerly tolled, as tolls were abolished altogether.  By contrast, the Mass Pike tolls that were reinstated west of Exit 6 were never actually abolished; the rate was lowered to 0, but you still had to get a ticket. 

[roadman]

However & regardless of what tolling plan in is ultimately decided upon, federal permission for (partially) tolling existing free Interstates still needs to be sought & approved before the first AET gantry on any Interstate in CT is erected.

Is this applicable to the parts of 95 and 395 that were the Connecticut Turnpike and formerly tolled? I believe there was something following the Mianus River Bridge collapse where the feds did help pay for the bridge replacement and required that tolls be removed at least there but I don't know if that edict applied to the whole highway.

It applies to all roads, including those that were formerly tolled, as tolls were abolished altogether.  By contrast, the Mass Pike tolls that were reinstated west of Exit 6 were never actually abolished; the rate was lowered to 0, but you still had to get a ticket. 

Tolls were eliminated only for passenger cars.  Commercial vehicles were still charged.

[PHLBOS]

I believe there was something following the Mianus River Bridge collapse where the feds did help pay for the bridge replacement and required that tolls be removed at least there but I don't know if that edict applied to the whole highway.

That's what triggered the removal of tolls along the entire CT Turnpike; the section north of I-95, originally CT 52, had then recently received the I-395 designation prior to the Mianus River Bridge collapse. 

All the remaining tolled facilities in CT were later removed in response to a massive vehicle pile-up at a CT Turnpike toll plaza a few months following the Mianus River Bridge collapse.  With the proliferation of AET decades later, the issue of traffic jams and/or crashes into toll booths no longer exists.  Such is one reason why CT, and other states, are seeking to (re)toll existing free Interstates.

That said & as others have already mentioned: once tolls are removed from an Interstate highway, regardless of whether the road was an Interstate from day one or grandfathered years later, federal permission is still required to (re)establish tolls for said-highways.

[abqtraveler]

However & regardless of what tolling plan in is ultimately decided upon, federal permission for (partially) tolling existing free Interstates still needs to be sought & approved before the first AET gantry on any Interstate in CT is erected.

Is this applicable to the parts of 95 and 395 that were the Connecticut Turnpike and formerly tolled? I believe there was something following the Mianus River Bridge collapse where the feds did help pay for the bridge replacement and required that tolls be removed at least there but I don't know if that edict applied to the whole highway.

It applies to all roads, including those that were formerly tolled, as tolls were abolished altogether.  By contrast, the Mass Pike tolls that were reinstated west of Exit 6 were never actually abolished; the rate was lowered to 0, but you still had to get a ticket.

I remember that quite well. You still got a ticket when you entered the Mass Pike, and if you entered and exited west of Exit 6, you would give the ticket to the toll collector upon exiting, but paid nothing.

[abqtraveler]

Video is online now.  The main selling point is federal funding with all the reckless hullabaloo going on with rampant state spending.  Just so ridiculous that RI and MA can get it done in 2 years while CT takes 10.  But then again, we were the last state in the northeast to raise the speed limit from 55, the last to allow Sunday liquor sales, and will probably be the last ones to the table on sports betting. 

IIRC, I-95 was to be one of the last routes with exit renumbering. RIDOT now says they plan to change their I-95 exits by the end of 2020, Mass. should be done by 2022. I get the feeling that this won't change ConnDOT's mind to complete their work sooner.

From what I've read thus far on Connecticut's exit renumbering program, I-95 will be one of the last highways to be renumbered. But in a bit of good news, it appears that the state wants to have all of its highways converted by the end of this decade, which is a bit faster than the 20-year timeframe ConnDOT originally announced in 2015. Maybe the feds are pressing ConnDOT to speed things up a bit.

[jp the roadgeek]

Video is online now.  The main selling point is federal funding with all the reckless hullabaloo going on with rampant state spending.  Just so ridiculous that RI and MA can get it done in 2 years while CT takes 10.  But then again, we were the last state in the northeast to raise the speed limit from 55, the last to allow Sunday liquor sales, and will probably be the last ones to the table on sports betting. 

IIRC, I-95 was to be one of the last routes with exit renumbering. RIDOT now says they plan to change their I-95 exits by the end of 2020, Mass. should be done by 2022. I get the feeling that this won't change ConnDOT's mind to complete their work sooner.

From what I've read thus far on Connecticut's exit renumbering program, I-95 will be one of the last highways to be renumbered. But in a bit of good news, it appears that the state wants to have all of its highways converted by the end of this decade, which is a bit faster than the 20-year timeframe ConnDOT originally announced in 2015. Maybe the feds are pressing ConnDOT to speed things up a bit.

Basically from glacial to sloth speed.

[vdeane]

Video is online now.  The main selling point is federal funding with all the reckless hullabaloo going on with rampant state spending.  Just so ridiculous that RI and MA can get it done in 2 years while CT takes 10.  But then again, we were the last state in the northeast to raise the speed limit from 55, the last to allow Sunday liquor sales, and will probably be the last ones to the table on sports betting. 

IIRC, I-95 was to be one of the last routes with exit renumbering. RIDOT now says they plan to change their I-95 exits by the end of 2020, Mass. should be done by 2022. I get the feeling that this won't change ConnDOT's mind to complete their work sooner.

From what I've read thus far on Connecticut's exit renumbering program, I-95 will be one of the last highways to be renumbered. But in a bit of good news, it appears that the state wants to have all of its highways converted by the end of this decade, which is a bit faster than the 20-year timeframe ConnDOT originally announced in 2015. Maybe the feds are pressing ConnDOT to speed things up a bit.

Considering that it's been 5 years since 2015 and there are 10 years in the decade, it's only very slightly faster.

[MikeTheActuary]

I forget the extent to which it's been mentioned here....but the powers-that-be have been in the process of realigning SSR 401, as part of slowly moving forward with the Bradley Airport master plan, in which the main parking garage will be extended westward and gain a centralized rental car facility, and then a new Terminal B will (supposedly/eventually) be built to replace the demolished Murphy Terminal and the current IAB.

The Bradley Connector freeway has been shortened by about 2000 feet or so, and the old Hamilton Road North demolished.   The freeway now ends at a funky semi-roundabout (it's not possible to drive the full circle).   I have no clue if the definitions of SSR 401 and 403 have been updated.

Also, in the past couple of days, I installed a dashcam in my car.  I went through the semi-roundabout when running an errand this afternoon...so I thought I'd share the video.

https://youtu.be/q1rYVHhqpzs

[RobbieL2415]

I forget the extent to which it's been mentioned here....but the powers-that-be have been in the process of realigning SSR 401, as part of slowly moving forward with the Bradley Airport master plan, in which the main parking garage will be extended westward and gain a centralized rental car facility, and then a new Terminal B will (supposedly/eventually) be built to replace the demolished Murphy Terminal and the current IAB.

The Bradley Connector freeway has been shortened by about 2000 feet or so, and the old Hamilton Road North demolished.   The freeway now ends at a funky semi-roundabout (it's not possible to drive the full circle).   I have no clue if the definitions of SSR 401 and 403 have been updated.

Also, in the past couple of days, I installed a dashcam in my car.  I went through the semi-roundabout when running an errand this afternoon...so I thought I'd share the video.

https://youtu.be/q1rYVHhqpzs

Terminal B is technically the IAB now.  So Aer Lingus gets dropped off there.  I don't think they do pre-clearence in Dublin.

At least they're finally done with that mess.  The Schoepster Rd. connector was falling apart as it was.

[MikeTheActuary]

Terminal B is technically the IAB now.  So Aer Lingus gets dropped off there.  I don't think they do pre-clearence in Dublin.

Dublin has preclearance, so the Aer Lingus flights arrive at Gate 7 in Terminal A. (I have spent way too much time waiting at gates 2/4/6...)

During the few months when Norwegian was flying to Edinburgh, they were arriving at the IAB, and then would have to get towed over to the west concourse of Terminal A for departure.

[ixnay]

What's the story re the ghost ramps at the 4-level I-84/CT 9 interchange in Farmington?  (Sorry if this has been broached before but I just discovered this interchange on Google Sat while looking up something else, and this thread *is* 152 pages long.)

ixnay

[PHLBOS]

What's the story re the ghost ramps at the 4-level I-84/CT 9 interchange in Farmington?  (Sorry if this has been broached before but I just discovered this interchange on Google Sat while looking up something else, and this thread *is* 152 pages long.)

Those ghost ramps are still there.  The interchange w/I-84 was originally planned to be a 4-way interchange with I-291 but only the northeastern leg between I-91 and I-84 was actually built (as I-291).  The remaining pieces of the proposed I-291, aside from the above and the piece that's currently CT 9 south of I-84, were ultimately dropped from ConnDOT's plans.

To my knowledge, there's no known plans for those unused ghost ramps... connections or removals.

[Magical Trevor]

In a similar vein (though not that I've seen covered on some websites as for the above stack), it looks like there was a plan for an exit 45 from EB I-84 that was abandoned at some point. Does anyone know more?

[ixnay]

What's the story re the ghost ramps at the 4-level I-84/CT 9 interchange in Farmington?  (Sorry if this has been broached before but I just discovered this interchange on Google Sat while looking up something else, and this thread *is* 152 pages long.)

Those ghost ramps are still there.  The interchange w/I-84 was originally planned to be a 4-way interchange with I-291 but only the northeastern leg between I-91 and I-84 was actually built (as I-291).  The remaining pieces of the proposed I-291, aside from the above and the piece that's currently CT 9 south of I-84, were ultimately dropped from ConnDOT's plans.

From the first of Magical Trevor's links, it appears ConnDOT couldn't get around the reservoirs north of the stack.

ixnay