Farmington Valley Turnpike

Farmington Valley Turnpike

Hartford has a problem. Its freeway system was never fully built out. (For more details, see the story at Kurumi’s site.) As a result, I-84 through West Hartford & Hartford, and US202/CT 10 ("Route 10") through Farmington, Avon, and Simsbury can see a tremendous amount of traffic congestion.

If the northwestern portion of I-291 had been built as planned (from the CT 9 "stack" on I-84 at the Farmington/West Hartford line, along the east side of Avon mountain, and along the CT 218 in Bloomfield and Windsor), maybe the congestion wouldn’t be quite so bad.

Realistically, the NIMBYism is unlikely to permit much road/highway relief from ever occurring. However, I can dream. So, I present
– I-891, the Farmington Valley Turnpike:

[Map]

This would be a toll road (EZ Pass only; no coins/cash) to help fund construction. Red portions would be built on the surface (or are already built, such as the overlap with CT187/189 and the Bradley Connector). Blue portions represent tunnels under Avon Mountain and Talcott Mountain. Green portions would be built as a depressed freeway, to minimize the aesthetic impact on the rustic Farmington Valley, perhaps with a bikeway/walking path cantilevered over the freeway.

Exit numbering is continued from Route 9, which currently ends with Exits 31 & 32 at I-84. When doodling this out, I originally planned to call this CT9, but if I’m going to have a fantasy, it might as well be one with a tri-colored shield, yes?

Exits would be as follows:
Southbound
(read down)
Northbound
(read up)
Exits

49-50

I-91
Hartford
Springfield
Exit
48
Old
County Rd
Kennedy Rd
Exit
47
CT 75
Poquonock
Suffield
Exit
46
Hamilton
Rd South
Exit
45
BDL
Bradley International Airport
Exit
44
East
Granby Road
Exit
43
International
Blvd
Exit
42
WEST
CT 20
East Granby
Granby


Exit
41


NORTH
TO
CT 187
CT 20


East Granby
Exit
40
CT 540
Hatchet Hill Rd
Seymour Rd
Exit
39
NORTH
CT 189
Granby
Tariffville
Exit
38
Tariffville
Rd
Exit
37
SOUTH
SOUTH
CT 187
CT 189

Bloomfield
Windsor

LAST
EXIT BEFORE TOLL

 
SOUTH
SOUTH
CT 187
CT 189

Bloomfield
Windsor
TALCOTT
MOUNTAIN TUNNEL
Exit
36
TO
TO
US 202
CT 10
Simsbury
Exit
35
CT 185
Weatogue
Bloomfield
Exit
34
TO
US 44
CT 10

Avon
Bishops Corner
AVON
MOUNTAIN TUNNEL
Exit
33

TO
CT 4
Farmington
West Hartford

LAST
EXIT BEFORE TOLL

 
Exits
31-32
I-84
SOUTH
CT 9
Hartford
Waterbury
New
Britain
Middletown


6 Comments


6 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Henry Watson // 12 Dec 2006 at 8:23 am

    I really like this proposal. Too bad the NIMBYs are against it. I would drive this highway, if it ever gets built; I’m already imagining it in my head as I write this.

    Now check out my proposal for Interstate 505 in the Seattle-Tacoma area:

    http://www.geocities.com/henryewatson/interstate505.html

  • 2 EAH_XxHeReTiKxX // 12 Jan 2007 at 7:24 pm

    Hi, excellent proposal, I believe it has been raised before but no serious plans were ever made. At the very least it would be nice to take advantage of the unused land throughout talcott mountain and the only half used I-291 stack in Farmington.

    This would definitely help relieve traffic in Hartford.

    • EAH_XxHeReTiKxX, WH Resident

  • 3 Phil // 19 Aug 2007 at 12:02 pm

    Great proposal…I live in east CT in the other area affected by the NIMBY-blocking of I-84. Since there’s no direct highway connecting Hartford and Providence, traffic uses either 6 or 44/101 (I happen to live on the latter). If you ever get the time, I’d love to see a proposal addressing the traffic over in this area…keep up the good work!

  • 4 C. Carter // 29 Mar 2008 at 9:30 pm

    I love the idea, it would be even better if went all the way around the city, because i’m a resident of Hartford and traffic here gets worse and worse and rush hour is now unavoidable.

  • 5 C. Carter // 29 Mar 2008 at 9:40 pm

    BTW, would you consider Route 9 as apart of I-891 since the exits continue from their?

  • 6 monstar283 // 30 Mar 2008 at 3:41 pm

    That is and awesome idea!!! Having been a resident of Hartford for so many years, I would desperately like to see some changes with the highways in Connecticut. And adding the I-891 could be a start. Of course, who can forget about the Route 11 construction?

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