[UconnHusky]

Hello everyone,

I'm curious if linking Norwalk & Danbury via an expressway will ever come to fruition.

The last few weeks I have been commuting to Norwalk from the Danbury area and I'm in disbelief at the amount of congestion, especially between Walmart & DMV in Norwalk.

Thank you,
Uconn

[JayCT]

Probably won't happen in our lifetime. Wilton, Ridgefield and Redding so opposed the expressway that I believe it has been removed from all transportation plans. I guess these towns would rather deal with nightmare traffic than a safe modern highway. Again shortsighted IMHO, Jay

[arielmina]

well but the road has been widened. If you are new to the area, you may not remember how route 7 was single lane from Wilton all the way up to Danbury. Now at least it's been widened to two for a significant portion of that trip. It's a huge improvement.

This is an interesting article on the failure of Super 7 and potential plans for a "Greenway", which would be nice, though certainly wouldn't alleviate traffic.

Long-planned super highway may yield to greenway - Connecticut Post

[nep321]

I highly doubt U.S. 7 will ever be upgraded to a limited access highway between Norwalk and Danbury for the entire length. At least not within the next decade or two. They did, however, make such an upgrade north of Danbury, heading through Brookfield and into New Milford. CT has numerous unfinished highways; the most notorious being Route 11, which ends in Salem with an abandoned bridge. Another one is Route 9 in Farmington. There are unused ramps and cleared out land there, when the highway was supposed to go all the way up to Granby, but later was cancelled. Others include:

• I-384, which was supposed to go to Providence, but currently ends in Bolton, CT.
• I-291, which was supposed to be a large beltway around Hartford's immediate suburbs. Only one segment was ever built (from Windsor to Manchester).
• Route 10 was supposed to be a major highway from New Haven to Granby for its entire length.
• Route 20 was supposed to be a highway from Granby to Vernon and would have crossed the river.
• Route 189 was supposed to be a highway from Hartford to Granby center. One portion was built in North Bloomfield. It's 1/2 mile long and has one exit. Also, you can see huge flyover ramps around exit 46 off I-84 in Hartford, which is where the two highways would have junctioned.
• Route 140 was supposed to be a full highway.

There are many more CT routes that were supposed to be limited access highways, but they were either opposed by locals or the state lacked the funds necessary to build them. Now, the state suffers from traffic congestion in many of these areas, and we can see why. Route 10 is awful IMO, and is the main artery through numerous town centers with no nearby highway access.

[HeadedWest]

Originally Posted by nep321

[/list]There are many more CT routes that were supposed to be limited access highways, but they were either opposed by locals or the state lacked the funds necessary to build them. Now, the state suffers from traffic congestion in many of these areas, and we can see why. Route 10 is awful IMO, and is the main artery through numerous town centers with no nearby highway access.

Same story for CT25 -- stopped at Trumbull, was supposed to connect to I-84 in Newtown. It would have been a great benefit to Trumbull, Monroe and Newtown to take all the truck and through traffic off their main n/s arterial street. CT25 is 2 lane the whole way from Trumbull northward.

Now the plan is to disassemble the ramps from I-84 in Newtown, giving up entirely on the possibility of finishing 25.

Connecticut - the land of unfinished highways.

[Konig1985]

Try convincing the million dollar mc mansion owners beside route 7 that its a good idea for their property value. Good Luck!

[arielmina]

Originally Posted by Konig1985

Try convincing the million dollar mc mansion owners beside route 7 that its a good idea for their property value. Good Luck!

interesting. There really aren't alot of "million dollar mc mansion" owners right "beside route 7". In fact, much of the opposition came from owners of historic old houses, which is way more common to find along route 7. Oh and there weren't many "McMansions" here in the early 80s when this was being debated. It was about perserving the more rural, historic character of these towns, not running a super highway through them. And again, as the article I linked mentioned, it was not just a widening of the current route 7, it was going to really mean a significant change to the area. I lived in a cottage in the early 90s in Wilton (a rental on a bigger, historic property - 1700s) about a mile, maybe 1.5 miles from the current route 7, and the "Super 7" was planned to come right by the property lines, which was so hard to fathom that it was so off the current route, but that's why you had opposition.

[Konig1985]

Originally Posted by arielmina

interesting. There really aren't alot of "million dollar mc mansion" owners right "beside route 7". In fact, much of the opposition came from owners of historic old houses, which is way more common to find along route 7. Oh and there weren't many "McMansions" here in the early 80s when this was being debated. It was about perserving the more rural, historic character of these towns, not running a super highway through them. And again, as the article I linked mentioned, it was not just a widening of the current route 7, it was going to really mean a significant change to the area. I lived in a cottage in the early 90s in Wilton (a rental on a bigger, historic property - 1700s) about a mile, maybe 1.5 miles from the current route 7, and the "Super 7" was planned to come right by the property lines, which was so hard to fathom that it was so off the current route, but that's why you had opposition.

1.5 miles EAST or WEST?

Indeed there are not many Mc Mansions right beside route 7 but a lot of properties affected fetch close to a million. My agent told me some house at the end of chessor ln, Wilton have to drop price to be sold during boom time.

[arielmina]

Originally Posted by Konig1985

1.5 miles EAST or WEST?

Indeed there are not many Mc Mansions right beside route 7 but a lot of properties affected fetch close to a million. My agent told me some house at the end of chessor ln, Wilton have to drop price to be sold during boom time.

EAST...off of rt 106. LOTS of old beautiful and historic homes.

[7 Wishes]

I had heard that at one time way back there were some thoughts of Rt. 7 being a "Super" Super 7 that would've gone from Norwalk to Burlington,VT. Even well north of Danbury there are stretches that are limited-access highway, like one going from Bennington, VT north aways.

All of you pining about the "land of unfinished roads" will like this site: Connecticut Roads