Connecticut Route 25
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Route 25 |
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| Length: | 28.59 mi (46.03 km) | ||||||||||||
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| Formed: | 1932 | ||||||||||||
| South end: |  I-95 in Bridgeport |
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| Major junctions: |
 Route 15 in Trumbull I-84 in Newtown |
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| North end: |  US 7 in Brookfield |
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Route 25 is a 28.59 mile, primary state highway connecting the city of Bridgeport and the town of Brookfield in the U.S. state of Connecticut.
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[edit] Route description
Route 25 begins at an interchange with Interstate 95 in Bridgeport. For the first 3.8 miles of the route, it is co-signed with the Route 8 freeway. After the split with Route 8, it continues as its own freeway through the town of Trumbull for another 6.1 miles. The freeway portion ends at the junction with Route 111 in Trumbull.
Route 25 continues northward as a surface road following Main Street through the towns of Trumbull, Monroe, and Newtown. In Newtown, Route 25 has a 2.7 mile overlap with U.S. Route 6. After the overlap with U.S. Route 6, it becomes a secondary minor arterial road until its terminus at U.S. Route 7 in Brookfield.
[edit] History
Originally, Route 25 continued well beyond Brookfield, following Route 7 to New Milford, then turning northeast, passing through Litchfield and Torrington, before terminating at Route 44 near Avon. In 1962 this portion of Route 25 was taken over by Route 202; Route 25 was truncated at its present terminus in Brookfield.
Before the last segment of the Route 25 Expressway opened in 1981, Route 25 originally followed Main Street through Bridgeport northward to the present-day expressway terminus. The old Route 25 through Bridgeport became an extension of Route 111 when the expressway opened.
The Route 25 expressway was originally planned to continue north to meet I-84 in Newtown, where a semi-directional interchange and freeway stub for the planned expressway connection was built. The planned 9-mile extension was canceled in 1991, along with many other highway projects due to a fiscal crisis arising when Connecticut was especially hit hard by the Late 1980s recession, when dozens of factories reliant on the defense industry closed with massive downsizing of the military following the collapse of the Soviet Union, along with hundreds of additional businesses fleeing the state following major tax increases to make up the huge budget deficits.
During the late 1990s an alternative plan to widen the existing Route 25 through Trumbull, Monroe, and Newtown has met opposition, particularly in Newtown where residents are opposed to any type of project that will change the existing profile of the Route 25 corridor, despite the high accident rate and congestion on the road. In the early 2000s the Connecticut Department of Transportation was forced to resort to a plan that will widen and improve intersections on Route 25 from the expressway terminus in Trumbull to the Monroe/Newtown town line, but opposition in Newtown has compelled CONNDOT to limit upgrades in that community to spot improvements at major intersections and routine maintenance. To ease traffic congestion in Newtown CONNDOT opened the Mile Hill Road Bypass, cutting through the former Fairfield Hills Hospital proterty and connecting to I-84 and Route 34 at the freeway stub originally intended for Route 25. Under the belief an expressway will never be built along Route 25 or Route 34, CONNDOT plans to remove this freeway stub and the high-speed interchange, replacing it with a diamond interchange within the next 10 years.
[edit] Exit list
| Town | Exit # | Mile | Destinations | Notes |
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Concurrent with  Route 8 (Exits 1-5) |
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| Bridgeport | 3.75 | Route 8 north – Waterbury To Route 15 north – New Haven |
Northbound junction only | |
| Trumbull | 6 | 4.04 | Old Town Road – Stratford | Southbound exit, northbound entrance To Route 8 north |
| 7 | 5.12 | Route 15 (Merritt Parkway) south Route 127 – Trumbull |
Northbound exit, southbound entrance | |
| 8 | Route 15 (Merritt Parkway) – New Haven, Norwalk |
Southbound junction only | ||
| 9 | 6.48 | Daniels Farm Road – Trumbull | ||
| 9.87 |  Route 111 |
at-grade intersection | ||
| Freeway ends at Route 111 |
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