During the planning of bypassing Route 1, three alternative routes were developed.  The first was the shoreline route, which would be constructed adjacent to the coast, along Route 1.  The second route was the northern alignment, which was planned to serve Danbury, Waterbury and Hartford, and eventually became what is now Interstate 84.  Finally the third route, which was located away from the shoreline, but not as far inland as the northern alignment. Construction on the third alignment began in 1933, and the the first section from Greenwich to Trumbull opened in 1936.  The remaining section of what became the Merritt Parkway, including the Sikorsky Bridge opened in 1940.

 

The shortage of raw materials and manpower during World War II slowed highway construction in Connecticut between 1941 and 1945.  However, immediately after the war, construction began on three bypasses in Darien, East Haven, and Old Lyme including the original Baldwin Bridge spanning the Connecticut River.  By 1950, the three US Route 1 bypasses were open to traffic, and planning for an expressway linking New York City and Provicence was underway. 

 

The routing for what would become the Connecticut Turnpike was approved by the Connecticut Highway Department by 1954, which incorporated the Darien, East Haven and Old Lyme bypasses into the final alignment.  Construction on the turnpike began in 1955, with the entire route except the section between Exit 2 and I-287 in New York opening to traffic on January 2, 1958.  The remaining section of the $454 million turnpike opened in October 1958.

 

As the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was mapping out the interstate highway system in the late 1950s, the Connecticut Highway Department anticipated Interstate 95 would be applied to the Connecticut Turnpike.  In addition to spurring economic growth in eastern Connecticut and relieve traffic congestion in the Route 12/Route 32 corridor, the highway department routed the turnpike north from Waterford to Killingly so Interstate 95 would be applied to the entire 129-mile road and spend more mileage in Connecticut.  However, the Interstate 95 designation was truncated at Interchange 76 in Waterford, and the Connecticut Turnpike continued as Route 52 from Waterford to Killingly until 1983.

 

In 1964, the 21-mile "free" section of Interstate 95 from Waterford to the Rhode Island border was opened, including a widened Gold Star Memorial Bridge between Groton and New London.

 

The turnpike opened with 8 barrier tolls, which originally charged 10 cents for cars.  By the time the tolls were removed in 1985, they charged 35 cents for cars.  Along its 129-mile length, there were 90 interchanges when the Connecticut Turnpike opened, as well as eight pairs of service areas.

 

From 1958 to 1980 there was little change to the Connecticut Turnpike.  However, population and economic growth continued to outpace the expansion of Connecticut's highway infrastructure from the 1960s to the present, and the Connecticut Turnpike, like Route 1 and the Merritt Parkway became choked with miles long backups, and gridlock conditions during rush hour in Fairfield and New Haven Counties.

 

During the 1980s, several events led to the demise of the tolls on the Connecticut Turnpike.  The first incident was a devastating crash in January 1983, when a tractor trailer slammed into a line of cars stopped at the Stratford toll plaza during evening rush hour.  In the fiery aftermath, seven people including the driver of the truck, died.  Anti-toll activists across the state blamed the toll as the cause of the accident, and completely overlooked the fact the driver of the truck had fallen asleep at the wheel.

 

Six months later, on June 10, 1983, a section of the bridge spanning the Mianus River in Greenwich collapsed, sending vehicles plunging into the river 70 feet below.  Three people perished and several more were injured.  However, this accident indicated how severely deteriorated roads and bridges had become not only in Connecticut, but across the country.  Prior to 1976, federal funding was available only for new highway construction, and nothing was set aside for repairing existing roads and bridges.  Despite the allocation of federal funds for maintenance starting in 1976, many states including Connecticut deferred maintenance costs, and used excess money for new construction.  At the point of the Mianus bridge collapse, the Connecticut Department of Transportation had 12 bridge inspectors that worked in two-man teams to inspect the state's 3000 bridges.

 

The final event that sealed the tolls' fate was legislation enacted by Congress in the early 1980s which made states that collected tolls ineligible for federal highway funding.  With anti-toll sentiment running at a fever pitch following the 1983 Stratford toll crash, and the spector of losing millions of dollars in federal funding, ConnDOT announced the tolls would be removed from the Connecticut Turnpike once its construction bonds were paid off.  The bonds were paid off nearly a decade ahead of schedule, and the tolls were removed from the Connecticut Turnpike in October 1985. 

 

The era of tolls came to an end (at least temporarily) in Connecticut in 1990, when tolls were removed from the Merritt Parkway, the Wilbur Cross Parkway at the West Rock Tunnel in New Haven and the Charter Oak Bridge in Hartford. Today, the only places in Connecticut you will find tolls are on for the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury Ferry and the Haddam Ferry, which both carry vehicles across the Connecticut River.

 

Although the tolls no longer exist along the Connecticut Turnpike, the 16 service areas continue to provide food, gasoline and other services to motorists.  Some vestiges of the tolls still remain--the former West Haven toll building still stands along the south side of the turnpike near Exit 42 in West Haven, and another toll building serves as a State Police barracks in Montville.

 

Signage on the turnpike resembled the italic button text on dark blue background, similar to the original New York State Thruway highway signs.  Starting in the 1980s, ConnDOT started replacing the old highway signs with the more contemporary white text with graphic route numbers on a green background.  The present day signs are the standard signage used on highways throughout Connecticut.  The last of the original Connecticut Turnpike signs, between Exit 51 in East Haven and Exit 59 in Madison were replaced in 1995.

 

With the removal of the toll plazas from the Conncticut Turnpike, traffic volume had increased by 20 percent between 1985 and 1990.  Daily rush-hour gridlock and the increase in fatal traffic accidents had reached epidemic proportions on the turnpike from East Haven to Greenwich.  By the early 1990s, ConnDOT, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), local and regionl agencies had made upgrading the turnpike in southwest Connecticut a top priority.  Over the next ten years, nearly $2 billion would be invested to widen the highway, repair bridges, and install state-of-the-art technology to reduce congestion in Fairfield and New Haven Counties.

 

One of the first projects involved $460 million replacement of  the four-lane Raymond E. Baldwin Bridge between Exit 69 in Old Saybrook and Exit 70 in Old Lyme with an eight-lane concrete box-girder span in the early 1990s.  The new bridge opened in 1993, and the old bridge was demolished in 1994. 

 

Between 1993 and 1995 ConnDOT installed the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) on the turnpike from the New York state line to Exit 56 in Branford.  This system combined traffic camaras, variable message signs, speed monitoring devices, and road temperature sensors to improve safety and reduce delays caused by gridlocked traffic and numerous accidents on this stretch of Interstate 95.

 

From 1996 to 1998 the Saugatuck Bridge in Westport was reconstructed.  The original bridge carried three lanes of traffic in each direction, but had no shoulders.  The new bridge maintained three lanes of traffic in each direction with full left and right shoulders.

 

Also in 1996, construction began in Bridgeport and Stamford on a series of improvements.  In Stamford, the Connecticut Turnpike was widened to eight lanes with full shoulders between Exit 10 and Exit 8.  As part of the $70 million project, the southbound service area near Exit 9 was renovated.  The Stamford project was completed in 2000. 

 

Construction started on the $15 million reconstruction of Exit 40 in Milford in 2001.  The bridge that carries I-95 over Woodmont Road is being replaced, and exit and entrance ramps are being made longer and wider to better accomodate tractor trailer trucks that frequently use Exit 40 to patronize the numerous truck stops at this interchange.  Additionally, Woodmont Road and Old Gate Lane are being widened as part of the overall project.

 

Between 1997 and 2000 Exit 41 was reconstructed.  The $30 million project replaced the Marsh Hill Road bridge over the Connecticut Turnpike.  The northbound ramps were made longer and wider to accomodate the widening of Marsh Hill Road.  The southbound onramp was relocated, and the interchange was reconfigured from a diamond to a partial cloverleaf layout.

 

Reconstruction of the turnpike in Bridgeport includes widening the road to eight lanes between Exits 24 and 29, and ten lanes between Exits 26 and 28, with full left and right shoulders.  To facilitate construction, the $400 million project has been divided into five separate contracts.  The first two, known as the Yellow and Green contracts are complete.  The Yellow project was completed in 2000, a year ahead of schedule.  The bridge over the Yellow Mill Channel and Exit 29 were reconstructed, and the southbound Exit 28 offramp and northbound onramp were removed.  The Green contract was completed in 2001.  The P.T. Barnum Bridge spanning Bridgeport Harbor, between Exits 27A and 28 was widened to the south.  The newly constructed bridge structure will carry the northbound lanes once the Pink Project is complete.  The Orange Project, which is located between Exit 26 and 27A, including the Route 8 interchange, is nearing completion, and is expected to wrap up in October 2003.  This is the largest of the five contracts, and included reconstructing the Route 8 interchange (Exit 27A) and the elevated highway between Exits 26 and 27.  The Pink contract picks up where the Green project left off, and reconstructs the pre-existing bridge structures over Bridgeport Harbor.  This project is about 60 percent complete, with southbound traffic now shifted to the reconstructed center portion of the highway.  Pink contract crews are reconstructing the northern third of the highway and bridge structures between Exits 27A and 28.  This project will be completed in December 2004.  Work was delayed by several months on the Pink contract when the construction company that originally won the contract went out of business.  ConnDOT quickly hired another company to complete the work.  Finally, the Blue project will widen the Connecticut Turnpike and replace bridge structures from Exit 24 to Exit 26.  Additionally, the Blue project includes reconstructing the median divider, rehabilitating bridges and resurfacing south of Exit 24 to Exit 23.  While this project is on schedule, it also encountered some trouble.  In the spring of 2002, workers driving piles for a new retaining wall near the southbound Exit 25 offramp struck and severed a 48-inch sewer line near Bostwick Avenue.  For months a series of pumps and above ground pipes were used to divert sewage from Bridgeport's West End around the break until a new sewer line was constructed.

 

Finally, the first in a series of projects that will reconstruct the turnpike between Exit 46 in New Haven and Exit 54 in Branford is well underway, and work on the second project will begin within the next month. Contract D, which widens I-95 from the Lake Saltonstall bridge to Exit 54 is about 65 percent complete. Median reconstruction was finished in June 2003, and traffic has been shifted to the inner portion of the roadway as work to add a third lane in each direction is proceeding. Meanwhile in May 2003 ConnDOT opened bids for Phase 1 of Contract C, which includes the reconstruction of the turnpike from the Lake Saltonstall bridge westward to Exit 51 in East Haven. No work will be done on the Lake Saltonstall bridge itself, as it was reconstructed between 1992 and 1995, and it is wide enough to accomodate two additional travel lanes. The bridge will be resurfaced and restriped.  Part of the overall plan, an estimated investment of $1.2 billion includes replacing the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge (locally known as the Q-Bridge) with an extradosed cable-stay "signature span," which is popularly supported by officials in New Haven.  Planning is in the final stages, and construction on the $800 million bridge is expected to commence in 2004.