Connecticut News

[Mergingtraffic]

I saw stumps for new extruded aluminum signs on I-84 EB by exits 14-15. First day it was only for Lodging Exit 15, now today I see quite a few others, some are in between current BGSs that are up.
Others just have markers for future hikes to be made.

[shadyjay]

Saw those yesterday, starting at the 1 mile advance for Exit 14.  I can't find project plans online so not sure how far east they'll go.  My guess is its just Exits 14-15 in Southbury.   Wonder if we'll see the loss of "EXIT - GAS 15" logo sign.  Still amazing that has been up for so long and not corrected (since 2000 at least).

I was on I-84 in Vernon today and noticed the last of the overheads are up and most of the old ones on the overpasses removed.  Plan on checking further east this weekend and will hopefully get some shots, including the new HOV Exits sign in Vernon.

**Also, Rand McNally's 2027 atlas just came in the mail yesterday.  It has new mileage-based exits for I-84 in CT.  That seems to be the only major change for CT that I could find so far.  I-84 was supposed to get mileage exits in 2026 according to CTDOT's exit renumbering page.  It still lists 2026, but no contract is shown.

[The Ghostbuster]

Does that mean Interstate 84's exits won't be renumbered this year? Let us know if a contract materializes and a precise date for the exit renumbering emerges.

[abqtraveler]

Does that mean Interstate 84's exits won't be renumbered this year? Let us know if a contract materializes and a precise date for the exit renumbering emerges.

It might be possible that CTDOT is planning to overlay new exit numbers on existing signage, which is something they could do in-house without a contract. They might have done a cost-benefit analysis and figured it might be quicker and cheaper to have their sign shop produce the overlays and then have a couple crews go out an install them.

[RobbieL2415]

Does that mean Interstate 84's exits won't be renumbered this year? Let us know if a contract materializes and a precise date for the exit renumbering emerges.

It might be possible that CTDOT is planning to overlay new exit numbers on existing signage, which is something they could do in-house without a contract. They might have done a cost-benefit analysis and figured it might be quicker and cheaper to have their sign shop produce the overlays and then have a couple crews go out an install them.

Overlay exit numbers, on 40+ year old signage in Manchester and Vernon?

[abqtraveler]

Does that mean Interstate 84's exits won't be renumbered this year? Let us know if a contract materializes and a precise date for the exit renumbering emerges.

It might be possible that CTDOT is planning to overlay new exit numbers on existing signage, which is something they could do in-house without a contract. They might have done a cost-benefit analysis and figured it might be quicker and cheaper to have their sign shop produce the overlays and then have a couple crews go out an install them.

Overlay exit numbers, on 40+ year old signage in Manchester and Vernon?

If they're rolling in the sign replacement into a larger project to rehabilitate that stretch of highway, it might make sense to overlay the existing signs for now instead of delaying the exit renumbering for who knows how many years from now until they get around to the rehabilitating the roadway and replacing signage on the Manchester-Vernon segment.

[roadman65]

I see traffic pattern changes coming to the Gold Star Bridge between New London and Groton.  I saw that they are making one span two way while the other gets a total rehabilitation. 

Hope that dont create major incidents.

[Ted$8roadFan]

With warm weather approaching, I hope the state has considered summertime traffic in its plans for the rehab of the Gold Star Bridge.

[Rothman]

With warm weather approaching, I hope the state has considered summertime construction season traffic in its plans for the rehab of the Gold Star Bridge.

FTFY...

[Plutonic Panda]

I-95 bridges being rebuilt:

https://www.roadsbridges.com/transportation-management/news/55375828/900m-connecticut-bridge-project-triggers-major-i-95-traffic-shakeup

[shadyjay]

There's a lot of major bridges getting work in CT starting this year or next.  In addition to the Gold Star...

I-291 / Bissel Bridge, Windsor / South Windsor
I-84 / Bulkley Bridge, Hartford-E Hartford
CT 2 / Founders Bridge, Hartford-E Hartford
CT 3 / Putnam Bridge, Glastonbury-Wethersfield.  Work already started.  Weight restriction in place.
I-95 / Baldwin Bridge, Old Saybrook-Old Lyme.  Contract going out to bid later this year.

That's a lot of bridges, especially in the Hartford area. 


In the sign replacement front....


Drove the Wilbur Cross yesterday and saw very little progress since my last drive in April.  Some new  sign posts up, some overhead foundation construction.  No new overhead structures up yet. 

The 2023 spot replacement project is still making steady progress.  Work is mostly taking place on the sites in the New Haven area, including 3 sites on I-91 South to accomodate the new option lane for 91S->95N, plus 2 sites on I-95 North in the vicinity of Exit 42.

Also, something interesting I observed today, the 91SB->CT9SB (Exit 22S) approach has been restriped.  It appears there's going to be an option lane for this exit, in addition to the left lane exit only situation.  This must be an in-house project, as I haven't seen any project in the Bid Board.  I wonder if modified Exit 22-S signage will appear.   The lane markings have changed,.... they were normal dashed, changing to mini dashes 1/2 mile before the exit, to solid approaching the exit.  Now they're mini-dashed at the 1 mile mark, sold white from the 1/2 mile mark to just past the gore, then transitioning to normal dashes.  This happeed within the past day or so.  We shall see about new signage for this. 

[Mergingtraffic]

I'm thinking with the I-84 Southbury project and the new sign stumps, I'm guessing that's in the repaving project thats going on there?  Kind of like they did with I691?  A lot of WB BGSs now have new stumps between 16 and 15 now as well.

[shadyjay]

Got shots of the last 2 overheads to be put up as part of the I-84 resigning from Vernon to Union...

Westbound @ Exit 70/Willington:
84WB-Exit70-> by Jay Hogan, on Flickr

Westbound @ Welcome Center/Willington:
84WB-RestArea-> by Jay Hogan, on Flickr

The eastbound direction just has a single sign on this gantry, an "EXIT ONLY" for Exit 70.


With the installation of these two gantries, the I-84 resigning project is essentially complete.  The "staging area" off Exit 70 is void of any signs awaiting installation. 

[shadyjay]

I-95 Gold Star NB signage:

At Exit 83:
95NB-Exit83-> by Jay Hogan, on Flickr

Crossover:
95NB-GoldStarReconstr-1 by Jay Hogan, on Flickr

3/8 mile!
95NB-GoldStarReconstr-5 by Jay Hogan, on Flickr


New I-291 Eastbound signage...

291EB-Exit02-> by Jay Hogan, on Flickr

291EB-84jct<> by Jay Hogan, on Flickr


And all the rest that's recent...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/shadyjay/with/55336338092/

[Mergingtraffic]

Westbound @ Welcome Center/Willington:
84WB-RestArea-> by Jay Hogan, on Flickr

The rest area signs are reversed.  They made the same mistake on I-84 in Danbury with Exit 1 WB and Exit 3 EB.
The "exit only" sign pictured should be the one before and the one before should be placed here with the arrow facing up and to the right.

The new logo services signs look great.  I was wondering how long the button copy ones would stay up.

and according to my recolection, only one non-reflective button copy sign remains.  The I-95 guidance sign on Water St in Bridgeport.

[shadyjay]

You mean this one?
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1709028,-73.1913067,3a,48.9y,25.09h,86.78t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1st7sLn6aAPCTTlWg-lM22cQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D3.2156035617538805%26panoid%3Dt7sLn6aAPCTTlWg-lM22cQ%26yaw%3D25.090695668822995!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDYxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Too bad these are gone in Groton just off the CBS Hwy... they're on the 2018 street view but gone by the next recent one (2023)...
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3587554,-72.0648843,3a,75y,95.8h,86.87t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sJt7OJ-Da7w7QdI1owtMywQ!2e0!5s20181001T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D3.1254933011032335%26panoid%3DJt7OJ-Da7w7QdI1owtMywQ%26yaw%3D95.79573641012219!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDYxNi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

It won't be long before CTDOT has replaced the reflective button copy still out there and we'll have to hunt for the old classic examples of them.  There's still a few kicking on CT 372 at the Berlin Turnpike which somehow survived the CT 9 resigning. 

And let's not forget them old ones on CT 34 in Derby and Orange (not button copy), similar in vintage to I-84 in Manchester.

[zzyzx]

Was reading this column from The Day about parking and traffic problems in Mystic. Residents and tourists know this has been a problem for decades, but this is the first I've heard about the story behind the widening around Exit 90 and Olde Mistick Village:

Sometimes the best ideas do not come from the experts.
Here's an example.
In the early 1990s, a group of state Department of Transportation engineers came to Stonington one night with options to redesign the Exit 90 interchange with Route 27. Some of their plans called for tearing down hotels and the old Friendly's.
Town officials complained about losing tax revenue. So during the meeting, a Pawcatuck man, who was not an engineer, asked if he could use a magic marker to draw on the DOT map. He drew a new plan for the ramps including the road behind Olde Mistick Village. The engineers said they had not thought of that.
That's the routing that you see today.

https://theday.com/news/903616/its-time-to-actually-do-something-about-mystic-parking-and-traffic/

I'm curious what the original plan was and how engineers worked with the resident's idea to build the current frontage road behind the village today. Would something like this happen today, or would there just be years of "studies" and "design concepts" that go nowhere?

[Mergingtraffic]

So I drove I-95 NB on the Gold Star Memorial Bridge NB and if you take the exit, you can still stay on I-95 NB.  IDK how bad traffic gets since the construction started but why not sign all 3-lanes??  I did notice a sneaky speed camera at the very end as the lanes come back together.  I didn't see any signs on the NB side on the "right" of the split where the exits are.

Noticed that on CT-66 in Middletown too, coming down the big hill before McDonalds and there is a speed camera there.  Only one small sign that I saw as well.

Compared to FL or the Carolinas, CT and the northeast seem to focus on safety 100% and nothing on traffic flow.  I've seen CT take out quite a few channelized right turns and the removal of tapered lanes which are now just "exit only" lanes.

[shadyjay]

For those curious about the lack of full sign replacements for the Wilbur Cross Parkway in the vicinity of Whitney Ave/Exits 51-52...

https://portal.ct.gov/DOTHamden0061-0156?language=en_US

Looks like the plan is to improve the ramps, eliminate SB Exit 51 (loop ramp from WCP SB Whitney SB), remove stop signs, and such.  This is why the new 1 mile advance only advertises "Exit 52/Whitney Ave/Hamden/1 MILE" and no other signs for the exit are being replaced at this time.  Following the closure of the SB-to-SB ramp, the present Exit 52 should be renumbered Exit 51.  This would make Exit 52 be Dixwell Ave, a NB only exit. 

[Ted$8roadFan]

I love the Parkways, but they often need improvements like this one given today's drivers (and vehicles).

[The Ghostbuster]

In the case of the Merritt and likely the Wilbur Cross Parkways, that would be impossible for obvious reasons. Not sure about the other parkways, though.

[shadyjay]

Various improvements have been done to the Merritt over the years to make certain interchanges safer.  Main St/Rt 111 in Trumbull was converted to a SPUI with improved ramps.  The Fairfield/Black Rock interchange with CT 58 used to be a cloverleaf but was simplified with improved ramps.  Whether something happens to the US 7/Main Ave interchange in NOrwalk or not, at the very least, improvements are targeted for the Main Ave ramps, as there's really no reason for that to be a cloverleaf.  There's also been the Merritt median replacement project and various projects to trim out some of the trees in the median. On the WCP, the Wallingford interchange was improved with a new onramp NB without a stop sign.  There's been other improvements throughout the years at various interchanges.

Honestly, the stop sign-controlled onramps should be eliminated wherever possible.  Having traffic accelerate from a dead stop to highway speed is just dangerous.  Whether such improvements ever come to the Greenwich interchanges remains to be seen, however, but I do feel the CT/NY border interchange with NY 120A could be converted to a simple diamond with the loop ramps removed. 

We're not talking about widening here... just spot safety improvements that improve the overall traffic flow in the long run. 

[bob7374]

Speaking of the Merritt Parkway, I have posted photos taken on my last road trip along CT 15 in June to my exit renumbering gallery for the Merritt and Cross Parkways. They can be found at: https://malmeroads.net/mass21c/ct15photos.html

[Great Lakes Roads]

Meridian Interchange update- I-91 NB exit 17 will be permanently closed starting on the night of July 16th...
Exit 16 is now combined into one exit with two lanes!