The Milford Parkway, officially the Daniel S. Wasson Connector, is a

parkway A parkway is a landscaped thoroughfare.''"parkway."''Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (14 Apr. 2007). The term is particularly used for a roadway in a park or ...

between

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

and the Merritt and

Wilbur Cross Parkway The Wilbur Cross Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt" in conjunction with its counterpart) is a limited access road in Connecticut, comprising the portion of Route 15 between Milford and Meriden. It is named after Wilbur Lucius Cross, ...

s ( Route 15) in

Milford Milford may refer to: Place names Canada * Milford (Annapolis), Nova Scotia * Milford (Halifax), Nova Scotia * Milford, Ontario England * Milford, Derbyshire * Milford, Devon, a place in Devon * Milford on Sea, Hampshire * Milford, Shro ...

New Haven County New Haven County is a county in the south central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. As of the 2020 census, the population was 864,835, making it the third-most populous county in Connecticut. Two of the state's top 5 largest cities, New ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The highway is officially designated by the

Connecticut Department of Transportation The Connecticut Department of Transportation (often referred to as CTDOT and occasionally ConnDOT, or CDOT) is responsible for the development and operation of highways, railroads, mass transit systems, ports and waterways in Connecticut. ...

as State Road 796 (SR 796) but is not signed as such. As a designated scenic road, commercial vehicles are prohibited from using the Milford Parkway. In 2012, the Milford Parkway had an

average daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

count of 58,800 vehicles in the northbound direction.

Route description

The Milford Parkway has one intermediate exit between US 1 and Route 15, at

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1, US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between M ...

. There is also a partial interchange to Wheelers Farms Road by way of Wellington Road, which is also served by exit 55A on the Wilbur Cross Parkway (Route 15). On ConnDOT highway maps, the route is referred to as the "Daniel S. Wasson Milford Police Department Connector."

History

At its completion on September 2, 1940, the

Merritt Parkway The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a limited-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County, Connecticut, New Haven County. ...

ended at the present-day Sikorsky Bridge crossing over the

Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...

, and the

was planned to continue in the northeast direction towards

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. The Milford Parkway was then built as a connection between the two parkways and

(US 1). The Milford Parkway was opened to traffic on September 2, 1942. The long loop ramp connecting to southbound Route 15, including the interchange with Wheelers Farms Road, was completed in 1993. Until this point, there was no access to the Milford Parkway from southbound Wilbur Cross Parkway.1991 Aerial view of Merritt Parkway-Milford Parkway-Wilbur Cross Parkway Interchange (Historic Aerials)
/ref> On June 23, 2003, the parkway was renamed to honor of Daniel S. Wasson, the first police officer to die in the line of duty in the city of Milford. Wasson was killed on April 12, 1987, when he was shot by a motorist he had pulled over. Prior to 2012, the parkway was treated mostly as a ramp, signed as "To

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

US 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

" on Route 15 and Wheelers Farms Road, as well as "To Route 15" on both I-95 and US 1. In summer 2012, exit numbers were applied to the parkway's four interchanges. Also included in the project were the first signs to designate the parkway by the Milford Parkway name, located on US 1. However, entrance signs at the other three interchanges still do not list the name of the road.

Exit list

References

{{Attached KML, display=inline,title Milford, Connecticut Transportation in New Haven County, Connecticut M Freeways in the United States Parkways in the United States