In its 1966 report, Transportation 1985: A Regional Plan, the Tri-State Transportation Commission recommended the long-range construction of a 17-mile-long expressway along the CT 79 corridor. In addition to serving recreational areas, the Commission believed that the proposed expressway would fill in the north-south gap between I-91 and the CT 9 Expressway.

Beginning at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, the proposed CT 79 Expressway would have continued north past the Connecticut Turnpike (I-95) to its terminus at the also-unbuilt CT 66 Expressway in Middlefield. Part of the route was to use the existing 4.5-mile-long Hammonasset Connector (unsigned CT 450, which opened in 1957) from the Connecticut Turnpike at EXIT 62. Completion of the expressway was scheduled for 1985.

The CT 79 Expressway had quietly been killed off by the mid-1970's, when the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission (successor to the Tri-State Transportation Commission) no longer had the route among its recommendations.

In this 2000 aerial photo, the Hammonasset Connector enters the state park from the upper left-hand corner of the photo, and terminates at a traffic circle. The Hammonasset Connector, which connects to I-95 (Connecticut Turnpike) and US 1 (Boston Post Road), was part of a larger plan for a CT 79 Expressway. (Photo by Greg Amy.)

SOURCES: Transportation 1985: A Regional Plan, Tri-State Transportation Commission (1966); Maintaining Mobility, Tri-State Regional Planning Commission (1975); Scott Oglesby.

• CT 79 shield by Barry L. Camp.
  

CT 79 EXPRESSWAY LINKS:

• CT 79 (Greg Amy)
  
• CT 79 (Scott Oglesby)
  
• CT 450 (secret) (Scott Oglesby)
  

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