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Interchange Index
Overview: Interstate 84 enters at the top left corner, after crossing the Connecticut River on the Bulkeley Bridge from Hartford. At this point, it overlaps US 6 and US 44. US 44 splits off immediately east of the bridge, and continues across Connecticut Boulevard, at the north edge of the aerial photo. I-84 and US 6 continue through the picture and leave at the middle of the eastern side. Two other state routes pass through this junction. CT 2 (which is actually signed east-west) enters the southern edge of the photo, turns west at the interchange, and leaves to the west over the Founders' Bridge. The freeway leaving to the north is the short-lived, secret CT 500. This runs northward, crossing under US 44, and ends in less than 1/2 mile at Governor St. From I-84, US 44 is exit 53, CT 2 west is exit 54, CT 2 east is exit 55, and CT 500/Governor St. is exit 56. I-84 is exits 2W and 2E from CT 2. Exit 3 on CT 2 is also visible here; it consists of a WB offramp to Pitkin St., just south of the main interchange, and a full folded diamond west of the interchange.
Interchange Description: This is a five-way interchange, built with no loop ramps. As a result, most of the connections that exist are fairly easy to trace in the aerial photo. A few interesting features are worth noting:
History: One minor change has occurred here in recent history. The photo shown is actually slightly outdated, and shows the old configuration. Sometime since the mid-1990's, the ramp from CT 2 WB to I-84 WB was realigned; it now crosses over the WB side of I-84 and joins the right side of the through lanes. This was done to reduce the disadvantages of a left entrance on a major through highway such as I-84. However, moving this ramp created a problem between the new right-side entrance and the right exit shortly afterwards for US 44 EB; to eliminate weaving, the ramp to US 44 from I-84 WB is no longer open. In addition, the funky at-grade intersection on the WB onramp from US 44 has been eliminated by restricting traffic on the local street there to northbound one-way traffic only. See the newer diagram below from CT DOT for a more up-to-date view of the configuration.
The design of this interchange hints toward the fact that CT 500 was once planned to continue futher north from its current terminus... Evidence: For traffic coming from the SE on CT 2, it would be convenient to have a way to travel northward from here without crossing the Connecticut River and entering downtown Hartford. It appears as if extra space was reserved for a folded half-diamond between the NB lanes and US 44, which would be helpful if CT 500 were to be extended northward. It looks as if the ramps between CT 2 southward and CT 500 either have or could be easily expanded to 2 lanes each. My original hunch on this was confirmed by Kurumi: I-284 was originally planned to be an alternate for US 5 along the east side of the Connecticut River, and would have extended northward from CT 500's current northern terminus.
Advantages: All in all, this is pretty well built. All connections, with the exception of the redundant EB-WB U-turns, are directly available. Because of the complete lack of loop ramps, there is virtually no weaving, and most connections are available at a reasonably high speed. All of the ramps are fairly wide-radius turns, allowing substantially higher speeds than tight loop ramps. This is actually fairly compact as well - a cloverleaf would have taken up only slightly less room, and would have provided for only 4 directions of travel with much more weaving.
Disadvantages: The only real problem here is the high number of left entrances and exits. CT 2 EB has one left entrance, and I-84 is liberally peppered with them (although one has been removed since the satellite photo was taken.) Although it may seem as though there are an inordinately high number of bridges, keeping the cost high, it's pretty hard to avoid that in a five-way interchange.
Thanks to an m.t.r. post by Kurumi for pointing out the proposed I-284 extension of CT 500. He also pointed out that I should be saying SR 2 and SR 500, as that is the standard in CT, but I like my standard of using the state's postal code better. ;-)