CT 73 Expressway (unbuilt)


	A SPUR TO WATERTOWN: In the late 1960's, both the Connecticut Highway Department and the Tri-State Transportation Commission planned a 3.5-mile-long expressway along CT 73. Although an exact route had not been determined, and no rights-of-way had been purchased for the route, the expressway was roughly planned to run from the CT 8 Expressway in Waterbury northwest to the intersection of US 6 and CT 63 in Watertown. Part of the route may have also paralleled a CSX (Conrail) spur north of Waterbury. A partial freeway interchange between CT 8 and CT 73 (EXIT 35) opened in 1968 as part of the construction of the CT 8 Expressway. This interchange, which only allows access from CT 8 northbound to CT 73 westbound, and from CT 73 eastbound to CT 8 southbound, may have been integrated into the CT 73 Expressway proposal. By the mid-1970's, the CT 73 Expressway had disappeared from official state and regional plans. However, concerns over continued congestion on CT 73, which has four lanes for about a mile north of the CT 8 Expressway, and two miles for the remainder of the route, has prompted new studies in recent years. In 1997, the Council of Governments of the Central Naugatuck Valley began studies on traffic flow and recommended improvements in the CT 73 corridor.


	This 2000 photo shows the ramp from the northbound CT 8 Expressway onto westbound CT 73. This interchange may have been part of larger plans for a CT 73 Expressway. (Photo by Jim K. Georges.)

SOURCES: Transportation 1985: A Regional Plan, Tri-State Transportation Commission (1966); Planning for the Future, Connecticut Highway Department (1968); Maintaining Mobility, Tri-State Regional Planning Commission (1975); Scott Oglesby.

CT 73 shield by Ralph Herman.

CT 73 EXPRESSWAY LINKS:

CT 73 (Greg Amy)

CT 73 (Scott Oglesby)


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