The Wilbur Cross Highway is the designation for a highway beginning at Wethersfield, running along a portion of Connecticut Route 15 and

U.S. Route 5 U.S. Route 5 (US 5) is a north–south United States highway running through the New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Significant cities along the route include New Haven, Connecticut; Hartford, Connecticut; and Spring ...

East Hartford, Connecticut East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford, Connecticut. It is home to aeros ...

, and then continuing northeast as a section of Interstate 84, part of which is also cosigned as U.S. Route 6. The highway ends at a junction with the tolled

Massachusetts Turnpike The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state l ...

Sturbridge, Massachusetts Sturbridge is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It is home to Old Sturbridge Village living museum, living history museum and other sites of historical interest such as Tantiusques. The popu ...

. The entire route was formerly signed as Route 15.

Route description

Route 15 and U.S. Route 5

The Wilbur Cross Highway begins as a Y-interchange with the

Berlin Turnpike The Berlin Turnpike is a 4-lane/6-lane divided arterial road mostly carrying U.S. Route 5 (US 5) and Route 15 in New Haven County and Hartford County in the U.S. state of Connecticut. The road begins one mile south of the Meriden-Berlin tow ...

in Wethersfield. South of here, Route 15 and U.S. Route 5 (US 5) continue south along the turnpike. The highway proceeds in a northeasterly direction and has an interchange with

Route 99 International * European route E99 Australia * Springbrook Road, Springbrook Road, Queensland Canada * British Columbia Highway 99 * Ontario Highway 99 (former) * Saskatchewan Highway 99 China * G99 Taiwan Ring Expressway, G99 Expressway ...

(Old Route 9) before entering

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 ...

and reaching interchanges with

Interstate 91 Interstate 91 (I-91) is an Interstate Highway in the New England region of the United States. It provides the primary north–south thoroughfare in the western part of the region. The Interstate generally follows the course of the Connect ...

(I-91) and the

Hartford–Brainard Airport Hartford–Brainard Airport is a towered public airport three miles (5 km) southeast of downtown Hartford, in Hartford County, Connecticut. It is owned by the Connecticut Airport Authority. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National ...

access road. The highway then crosses the Connecticut River by way of the

Charter Oak Bridge The Charter Oak Bridge is one of the three highway bridges over the Connecticut River in Hartford, Connecticut. The twin steel stringer bridge carries the Wilbur Cross Highway ( Route 15/U.S. Route 5) over the river, connecting downtown Hartford w ...

, curving to a more east-west direction, before merging into the median of

I-84 Interstate 84 may refer to: * Interstate 84 (Oregon–Utah), passing through Idaho, formerly known as Interstate 80N * Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts), passing through New York and Connecticut {{road disambiguation 84

East Hartford East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford, Connecticut. It is home to aerospac ...

Interstate 84

US 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to ...

is cosigned with I-84 on the Wilbur Cross Highway from exit 57 in East Hartford to exit 60 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

History

The highway was built in the 1940s, before the

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

era, as a continuation of the

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 Cros ...

, which itself is a continuation of the

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

– all of which were once signed Route 15. Originally, the parkways were to span continuously from Greenwich to Union, but with the opening of

, the planned segment between Meriden and Hartford was never built, and Route 15 was instead routed along the

. In 1958, the highway north of the

was cosigned as

, as part of the interstate highway's planned route through Connecticut. In 1968, this designation was moved to a proposed highway from Hartford to Providence, and the then-cosigned portion with Route 15 was renumbered to I-86. The Route 15 designation remained cosigned with I-86 section south of the Massachusetts border until October 1, 1980, when it was truncated to its current northern terminus at exit 57 of I-84. The I-84 designation was restored in 1984 when the planned highway to Providence was cancelled. From 1948 to 1982,

US 44 U.S. Route 44 (US 44) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that runs for through four states in the Northeastern United States. The western terminus is at US 209 and New York State Route 55 (NY 55) in Kerhonkso ...

was signed along the highway from current exit 60 to current exit 69.

Charter Oak Bridge

The

, which carries the highway across the Connecticut River, has been operational since 1942. Due to the bridge's failing condition and the clogging on the nearby Bissell and

Founders Bridge The Founders Bridge is one of the three highway bridges over the Connecticut River in Hartford, Connecticut. The steel stringer bridge carries the Route 2 expressway, and also crosses over Interstate 91 (which runs parallel to the river). the b ...

s in the late 1980s, the Charter Oak Bridge and approach was completely rebuilt in 1991 to its current form.

Exit list

Exit numbers correspond to those of Route 15 and Interstate 84. Old exit numbers correspond to when the I-84 was signed as Route 15.

References

{{Attached KML State highways in Connecticut Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts) Transportation in Hartford County, Connecticut