Connecticut Route 25

Before the last segment of the Route 25 Expressway opened in 1982, 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 (14 km) 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. At that time Connecticut's economy was heavily reliant on the defense industry. The end of the Cold War combined with the recession resulted in a near-total collapse of Connecticut's industrial base, and a loss of billions of dollars in tax revenues generated by these industries.[4]

During the late 1990s, an alternative plan to widen the existing Route 25 to 4 lanes with a center turn lane in certain spots through Trumbull, Monroe, and Newtown was met with opposition, particularly in Newtown where there was strong opposition 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 (ConnDOT) 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 and periodic rehabilitation or replacement of existing bridges and culverts without adding capacity to the road. To ease traffic congestion in Newtown, ConnDOT opened the Mile Hill Road Bypass (SR 860), cutting through the former Fairfield Hills Hospital property and connecting to I-84 and Route 34 at the freeway stub originally intended for Route 25 (now part of SSR 490). 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. ConnDOT is also planning to build a rest area on land left over when the interchange conversion is complete.[4]

Between Route 111 in Trumbull and Route 59 in Stepney, the two-lane undivided arterial section of Route 25, carries dense traffic loads during the day. Most of the daily traffic backups are caused by vehicles waiting to make a left turn onto Tashua Road or Spring Hill Road in northern Trumbull. To alleviate traffic in this area, the following amends were initiated in 2007:

• Add a right turn branch from CT-25 Southbound to CT-111 Southbound.
• Upgrade the intersections at Tashua and Spring Hill Roads (more details to follow).
• Replace signage and renumber exits from sequential to mileage-base numbering on the freeway portion between the Route 8 split and Route 111. CONNDOT anticipates letting this contract to bid in August 2014. (This project will not affect the exit numbers on the 25/8 concurrency, which will be renumbered under a separate contract to replace signage on Route 8.)[5]