Hartford Bypass

The Wilbur Cross Highway is a freeway running along a portion of Connecticut Route 15 and U.S. Route 5 from Wethersfield to East Hartford, Connecticut, and then continuing northeast as a section of Interstate 84, part of which is also cosigned as U.S. Route 6. The freeway ends at a junction with the tolled Massachusetts Turnpike in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The entire route was formerly signed as Route 15.

Route description

Route 15 and U.S. Route 5

The Wilbur Cross Highway begins as a Y-interchange with the Berlin Turnpike in Wethersfield. South of here, Route 15 and U.S. Route 5 (US 5) continue south along the turnpike. The highway proceeds in a northeasterly direction and has an interchange with Route 99 (Old Route 9) before entering Hartford and reaching interchanges with Interstate 91 (I-91) and the Hartford–Brainard Airport access road. The highway then crosses the Connecticut River by way of the Charter Oak Bridge, curving to a more east–west direction, before merging into the median of I-84 in East Hartford.

Interstate 84

US 6 is cosigned with I-84 on the Wilbur Cross Highway from exit 57 in East Hartford to exit 60 in Manchester. I-84 intersects one of the remnants of an abandoned project, I-384, as part of a three-mile (4.8 km) series of complex interchanges in Manchester including the end of the US 6 concurrency at exit 60, and a connection to the only built as originally planned portion of I-291 at exit 61.

Beyond Manchester, I-84 climbs steadily from the Connecticut River Valley and passes through the Tolland County towns of Vernon, Tolland, and Willington. After briefly entering the Windham County town of Ashford, it reenters Tolland County in the town of Union. After exit 74 (Route 171), I-84 crosses the Massachusetts state line. All lanes eventually enter into Sturbridge, but the westbound lanes pass briefly through the town of Holland before entering Sturbridge. later, I-84 reaches its eastern terminus at the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90).

History

The highway was built in the 1940s, before the Interstate Highway era, as a continuation of the Wilbur Cross Parkway, which itself is a continuation of the Merritt Parkway – all of which were once signed Route 15. Originally, the parkways were to span continuously from Greenwich to Union, but with the opening of Interstate 91, the planned segment between Meriden and Hartford was never built, and Route 15 was instead routed along the Berlin Turnpike.

The road was completed in 1952, while it was extended to the Massachusetts Turnpike in 1957.

In 1958, the highway north of the Charter Oak Bridge was cosigned as I-84, as part of the interstate highway's planned route through Connecticut.

In 1968, the I-84 designation was moved to a proposed highway from Hartford to Providence, and the then-cosigned portion with Route 15 was renumbered to I-86.

The two lane portion of road was widened to four lanes from 1969 to 1973.

The Route 15 designation remained cosigned with I-86 section south of the Massachusetts border until October 1, 1980, when it was truncated to its current northern terminus at exit 57 of I-84. The I-84 designation was restored in 1984 when the planned highway to Providence was cancelled.

From 1948 to 1982, US 44 was signed along the highway from current exit 60 to current exit 69.

The Charter Oak Bridge, which carries the highway across the Connecticut River, has been operational since 1942. Due to the bridge's failing condition and the clogging on the nearby Bissell and Founders Bridges in the late 1980s, the Charter Oak Bridge and approach was completely rebuilt in 1991 to its current form.

The toll plaza at the Massachusetts Turnpike was removed in 2016.

Exit numbers were changed from a sequential system to a milepost-based system in 2021.

On June 9, 2015, Governor Dannel Malloy announced a five-year, $200 million construction project to rebuild the interchange between US-5/CT-15 and I-91 at the west end of the bridge. Although the interchange was rebuilt during the late 1980s and early 1990s along with the Charter Oak Bridge and the US-5/CT-15 portions of the Wilbur Cross Highway, traffic along the section has increased significantly since the reconstruction and the removal of the two connector ramps between I-91 and the Founders Bridge (CT-2), which is located further north, closer to Downtown Hartford. The Charter Oak Bridge took over these connections following its replacement in 1991, and became the main southeast bypass of Hartford for traffic traveling on I-91 and I-84. The project includes the replacement of the single-lane on-ramp from I-91 Northbound to CT-15 Northbound (Exit 29) with a double-lane ramp and the separation of the I-91 and CT-15 carriageways, which currently weave with each other for one mile approaching the interchange. These upgrades will improve connections between I-91 and I-84 The Charter Oak Bridge itself is not being replaced as part of the I-91/US-5/CT-15 interchange project. However, it is being rehabilitated to extend its service life, to include a new median barrier, repair and resurfacing of the bridge deck, and some widening of the bridge on the western end to accommodate the new ramps to and from I-91.

Exit list

Exit numbers correspond to those of Route 15 and Interstate 84. Old exit numbers correspond to when the I-84 was signed as Route 15.

References

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State highways in Connecticut
Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts)
Transportation in Hartford County, Connecticut