Interstate 291 (Connecticut)

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Interstate 291
Auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System

Length:

6.40 mi^[1] (10.3 km)

Formed:

(1957 early sections) 1994 to be completed

West end:

I-91 in Windsor, CT

East end:

I-84 in Manchester, CT

Routes in Connecticut
< Route 289		Route 302 >
Minor – Service Roads – State Roads

Interstate 291 (abbreviated I-291) is a short interstate highway in the state of Connecticut that starts at I-91 at its junction with Route 218 in Windsor and ends at I-84 in Manchester. It serves as a northeastern bypass of Hartford. The official length of I-291 is 6.40 miles, including 0.38 miles of the exit ramp to the merge with eastbound I-84.

1 Route description
2 Special designations
3 History
4 Exit list
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Route description

Heading east from I-91, I-291 has a partial interchange with Route 159, then goes across the Connecticut River on the Bissell Bridge. Originally constructed in 1957, the Bissell Bridge charged a toll until 1988 when the bridge was reconstructed. It has an interchange with US 5 in South Windsor and ends at I-84 in a complex interchange that also includes ramps for US 6, US 44, and I-384.

[edit] Special designations

I-291 is also known as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway for its entire length.

[edit] History

The current I-291 is only the northeastern arc of what was originally planned as a three-quarter beltway around Hartford. From Windsor, I-291 would have continued to cross I-84 again in Farmington, and end at I-91 in Rocky Hill. While the remainder of I-291 was cancelled amidst environmental concerns, those two interchanges were built as part of I-84 and I-91 construction, and stood unused for over 20 years as ramp stubs. Half of the stack interchange at I-84 was eventually placed in service when Route 9 was extended to run along a portion of the I-291 right of way south of I-84 in 1992. The I-91 ramp was demolished in 1999 during expansion of I-91. The Route 9 Expressway largely follows the original path for the southwest segment of I-291, leaving only the northwest section of I-291 unbuilt.

Route 218 is a 4-lane divided arterial route serving what would have been the northwest quadrant of the I-291 beltway. Over the years there have been discussions of constructing a multi-lane surface road from the I-84/Route 9 Stack interchange to Route 218 to complete the northwest bypass of Hartford, but funding and potential impacts to the reserviors that supply Hartford with much of its drinking water have prevented anything being built north of I-84. With the cancelation of the northwest quadrant of I-291, all travel between locations north and west of Hartford must pass through the I-84/I-91 interchange in downtown Hartford. The Connecticut Department of Transportation headquarters was built on land originally acquired for I-291 where it intersects U.S. Route 5 in Newington.

[edit] Exit list

The exit list of this U.S. road-related article needs to be cleaned up to conform to the exit list guide. After the exit list has been cleaned up, you may remove this message. For help, see How to Edit a Page, Category:Wikipedia help and the exit list guide.

Town	Exit #	Mile	Destinations	Notes
Windsor	1	0.0	Route 218 – Bloomfield	westbound exit
	2A	0.0	I-91 south – Hartford	westbound junction
	2B	0.3	I-91 north – Springfield	westbound junction; milepost at offramp
	3	0.9	Route 159 – Windsor	westbound exit
South Windsor	4	2.9	US 5 – East Hartford, South Windsor
Manchester	5	5.4	Tolland Turnpike	eastbound exit
		5.7	I-84 west – Hartford To I-384 east	eastbound junction; milepost at ramp split
		6.0	I-84 east – Boston	eastbound junction; exit ramp as main line