Questions about CT-8/25

[Rothman]

The idea of an expressway for MA/VT 8 north of the Pike seems quite foolhardy to me, given the level of traffic on the route.

[jp the roadgeek]

I always envisioned the VT 9 corridor as part of an extended I-88 to I-95 in Hampton, NH.  As for a Route 8 expressway: I never envisioned it going north of the Mass Pike save for a Super 2 offering a direct connection to MA 8 at the northeast end of the US 20 concurrency.

[RobbieL2415]

Also, CT 8 was proposed to continue past Torrington to end in either Massachusetts or Vermont and there was even talk on making CT 8 an Interstate at one point. Is this accurate? Here it is on Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Route_8

I'd be curious to see how much truck traffic gets taken off VT 9 of they built a Route 8 freeway.

Current VT 8 ends unremarkably at a T intersection.

They probably would only have built a Route 8 freeway all the way to VT 9 if plans for an east/west southern VT expressway had come to fruitition.  Was an interstate ever proposed to connect Brattleboro with Bennington via the VT 9 corridor?  Given the nature of the route, I don't know how they would have done that.  I know the US 4 corridor further north was tapped as a possible I-92 routing.  Regardless, if a VT 8 expressway made it to VT 9, I doubt it would have done much to take traffic off VT 9.  You'd still have to go south a significant distance to go east or west. 

Not sure though if there were any tenative plans for such an expressway on VT 8 (or MA 8 north of the Mass Pike).  It probably would've meant an exit between Exits 2 & 3 on the 'pike in the middle of the 30-mile no-exit zone, and for some reason, the residents are fighting to keep that 30 mile stretch exit-free.

VTDOT has been feverishly adding climbing lanes to VT 9 and they appear to spend a lot of money keeping the whole length well-maintained. That being said, an Albany to Portsmouth Interstate would probably be overkill.