Hidden in Plain Sight: Roads to Nowhere | NBC Connecticut

NBC Connecticut's ongoing series 'Hidden In Plain Sight' follows roads to nowhere to figure out where they were meant to lead. Learn more here: nbcct.co/61SUYzB
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[@PhilAndersonOutside]

Terrific story, and series. This may go without saying, but with the growth of e-bikes, and mutl-use greenways, these seem like they would be fairly easy to convert for future recreational and commuter use.

[@ewanduffy]

They would make excellent greenways.

[@goodmaro]

That is indeed the fate of many similar abandoned road projects and railroads.

[@dizzytheokapi8114]

I just took my motorcycle down abandoned Rt. 11 today. I brought lunch with me. It was cool!

[@danamoore1788]

Sad, but uhm question. States have had issues keeping up repairs on actively used bridges. Who is looking over the unused ones going right over active highways?

[@spyone4828]

Same people, I assume. The good news is that most of the wear and tear on bridges is caused by traffic, so no traffic means very little need for repairs. I do recall hearing that they actually need to plow them in the winter, as they were absolutely not designed to have snow on them for long periods of time.

[@MrFunreal]

I'd assume that one half used set of bridges is being maintained by the same group of people. If they arrive to check on the used half, they'll also check the unused half. But I got a feeling that instead of doing large scale repairs, eventually they'll just repair the used half and tear down the unused half. There's a few unused and unmaintained bridges out in the woods where nobody (except wildlife and hikers) could get hurt for standing on or under it once they fall apart completely.

[@tomservo5007]

having no highway between New Haven and Danbury is a huge pain in the arse to me

[@christopherchampange9401]

CT Route 34 was supposed to be a limited access highway to route New Haven to Danbury. In fact, Legion Ave New Haven was gutted to create the highway. It has only recently been rebuilt as a shopping area and Yale New Haven Hospital facilities. Also there were environmental concerns going towards the Maltby Lakes in West Haven.

[@fsinjin60]

@@christopherchampange9401 the protection of the swamps between the Boulevard and Yale Bowl aborted full blown plan

[@fsinjin60]

The remains of 34 are not too bad if the state would build out a highway interchange and bypass with rte 8 at Derby/Ansonia/Shelton and a new bridge at Lake Zoar. When I moved from Westville to Brewster, I used it too many times until my ties to New Haven were finally severed.

[@Jutty04901]

My family on my father's side is from Connecticut. My dad was born in Bridgeport and raised there but in the late 50s they most to West Hartford. I'm from Maine. I remember many visits to my grandparent's house in West Hartford. During those visits we would take trips to visit other relatives that lived in SE Connecticut, and the route taken included driving under the stack on I-84, to route 72 through New Britain and then to route 15. As new roadways were constructed, we would start using them. By my late teens Rt. 9 which used to end in Cromwell was extended to I-84 in Farmington.

[@markrich3271]

How do you like it in maine? I'm from the city and I am thinking of buying land near the Canadian border in maine. My family is worried it will be a culture shock considering the nearest town is 20 minutes away and it's located in Canada.

[@Will-rr1uz]

The 84 thing blew my mind. I've driven under it thousands of times it feels.

[@TheKingoftheKongs]

As a kid I always wondered where the other layers went lol

[@goodmaro]

The last item ain't nuthin' when you consider the abandoned developments that've been *permanently* flooded to make reservoirs.

[@checkyoursix5623]

In Central New York, the NYS Thruway still has many elevated overpasses crossing railroad right-of-way paths that have been abandoned for years by the former railroads. There is no "there" there (apologies to Gertrude Stein).

[@chuckyboy1217]

The 84 one is crazy. I live 5-10 minutes away and I never even thought of what was up there

[@maximusaugustus6823]

Hi to everyone from Ledyard, CT

[@dalemassicotte6198]

And what about I-384 in manchester used to be I-84, while I-84 (in Vernon) used to be I-86 to the Masspike. What's more, expressway US 6 in Willimantic used to be signed I-84 and was supposed to continue on to connect Hartford to Providence - never completed.

[@tammylewis2408]

Either finish them or repurpose them for walking/biking trails. With the emphasis on using bikes for transportation to reduce emissions and with the recent increase in gas prices to at least $5.00-6.00 a gallon, this should be something CT can do. CT is not the only state that has had this issue, and sometimes time and/or money allow a roadway to be completed, like I-287 in NJ or the Blue Route (I-476) in PA.

[@MrCraigblaze]

Thanks for the upload !! XD

[@jacksonteller3973]

There's a similar case to #3 in Illinois, there was a road called Eastwood Rd that you can't drive on anymore(though it's still listed on Google Maps)sometime in the 2010s the nearby private airport wanted to expand and so they forced everyone on that street to move out and then demolished the homes and blocked off the street with concrete barriers and got rid of the dead-end sign and street sign.

[@fsinjin60]

Try a series on all the leadins to the dry dams of NW CT built to avoid another 1955 style flood. Colebrook Lake, Mad River, sunnybrook, Thomaston Dam, Black Rock, Hall Meadow. Some on the Farmington watershed, others on the Naugatuck.

[@hawkmoon419]

How about the (mostly) unbuilt Woods River Expressway? Huge ramps for it at the Sisson St exit (exit 46) from I-84 in Hartford and an isolated, one-mile stretch of expressway (CT-189) in North Bloomfield.

[@samuelvickers7910]

Another road that was never finished in Stonington CT. Rt. 78 was sapposed to connect rt. 95 to the Ri. Line but never built only two ramps to Ri were only built

[@dashcamandy2242]

0:55 - Oh, like Rt. 11? 🤪 1:36 - There it is! And nobody I know of calls it "Rt. 5 1/2." 2:17 - I can see my house from there! (Not really, but my house IS somewhere in that moment of video.)

[@peterscott4597]

Baldwin Drive on the West Rock, runner from New Haven to Hamden.

[@annacichocka7734]

Sometimes some things don't work out so better things can happen. Make this into a nice walking/ biking trail and call it the green vein or something.

[@robertfpv7733]

Hidden in plain sight lol hidden a ten minute drive from your studio

[@got_glintsp963]

How about Route 11 that ends in Salem…funniest part is that route 11 is dedicated to the state DOT.

[@Chris_at_Home]

What a waste of money. Route 11 bypasses the good section of Rt 85. I remember getting pulled over on that section of Rt 85 about 2am graduation night 1971. I was sober with 4 friends that weren’t and the cops were looking for a stolen car, or so they said. We were sent on our way. I grew up on Amston Lake and then Hope Valley.

[@dashcamandy2242]

Rt. 11 ended in 1975 due to a lack of funding. Then, the state spent money elsewhere while not securing the land, and then after decades of complaints from NL County residents about traffic and accidents, they finally deem us worthy of "looking into it." A lot of planning went into a new route in the early 2000s to bypass all the small housing developments that have been built in the original planned route over all those years. From there, it got mired in add-ons and environmental entanglement. The Eight Mile River and its watershed run through the area, and there's a great deal of wetlands to deal with. Salem is in the migratory path of a rare salamander, so planning needed to be conscious of that. After that, there were all sorts of "demands" placed on the project: raising the entire highway through all wetlands and marshes, hiking and biking trails, scenic overlooks, rest areas, raised walkways for the wildlife to cross the road without using the street (ridiculous!), and then there were eminent domain concerns not too long after the eminent domain brouhaha in New London with Pfizer. There were so many obstacles to overcome that Rt. 11 was finally considered a "dead issue" and a town of 3,400 must endure 20-25,000 cars daily on one two-lane road. The New London Eminent Domain thing is interesting, as a sidenote. It is the story behind the movie "Little Pink House" - interested parties might like to know that this happened in 2001, and now in 2022 much of the land taken from its owners remains undeveloped - overgrown with weeds and littered with trash, refrigerators, couches, etc. Pfizer shuttered its New London facility as soon as its tax abatements from New London expired.

[@Chris_at_Home]

Building roads with wildlife crossing corridors is the new thing. There is a 6 year project going on to build about 15 miles of road for about a half billion up here with rest stops, trailhead parking lots and a wildlife crossing.. I moved north from Ct in 1979. They did something similar here taking land to build a bridge from Anchorage to Point McKenzie across Knik Arm. There was millions spent on design and property seizures but no bridge has been built.

[@Transitional]

I-84 and CT-9 remind me of I-695 and I-70 in Baltimore, but you cam cross 695 on 70 and go to a park and ride

[@orrangeuglad]

where is this specifically i wanna go here

[@WSNO]

It'd be cool if they gave some other use to these roads.

[@SonicBoone56]

There's some abandoned exits heading towards New Orleans that ended up becoming a nature reserve I think.

[@doylethelovely2555]

Poor soil on those you have some pretty cool things

[@jfp3earth357]

What about Dudleytown???

[@richiegillham42069]

Is there a version of this video for Arkansas?

[@goodmaro]

I wouldn't label the first two items -- highway stubs -- as hidden. Because of where they're located, they're obvious, and typical of many such sites in the USA and probably many other countries. The hope of some day completing construction, and then (when such hope is completely abandoned) the cost of dismantlement, causes them to persist. Only the ones that are located in the middle of nowhere, where construction commenced on segments not connected to other roads, can be said to be hidden. But there is another class of such abandoned items that can be said to be "hidden in plain sight" in another sense, which is when an old constructed feature has been repurposed. We *see* it, but don't *recognize* it as part or the entirety of some other piece of construction that's no longer used as such.

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

Really like your second paragraph there. That could indeed be part of this series. Have you written to Dan Corcoran at NBC directly with this suggestion?

[@goodmaro]

@@PhilAndersonOutside No, it's just a general observation.

[@danielflynn8530]

Middletown, that road past the juvenile facility

[@growgang_lc1978]

What road you talkin abt? I’m from Middletown lol

[@danielflynn8530]

@@growgang_lc1978 Route 11 I believe.

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

Rvier Road? Closed just past the NRG power plant, before Pratt? Leads to 410, could lead to 154 (gravel at that point)? I don't think that was ever any sort of highway or intended as such. I mean, Rte 9 is nearby. I could be wrong.

[@highlymedicated2438]

I love Connecticut it is so beautiful but unfortunately even Alabama has surpassed it in population and job growth

[@knowone3529]

Ptah was here

[@jimsantana8287]

It would be nice if the state opened these areas for all the ATV and dirtbike riders. This may help keep riders off the streets

[@999Patriots]

Not to be confused with the tax structure of the Connecticut state government.

[@maggieb7164]

Skate ways!!!

[@marcusdamberger]

Interesting video, however the music is overbearing and sometimes too loud. Stop trying to pull on the heartstrings so much and stick to good clear narration and storytelling. It's not a current affairs story, but a story nonetheless. The use of drone video is actually quite useful in this piece.

[@davidpaulo8460]

What are they doing there now I see they cut trees removed railings and added power lines for I-84 stacker

[@Toast0808]

I find these massive never completed wastes of money and environmental abuses (the cuts made for nothing) criminal.

[@davestewart2067]

They should have been finished. Population and vehicle trips continue to increase. The lack of a coherent I-291 around Hartford means all traffic goes through the downtown core. One has to hope sane minds prevail and the Aenta viaduct comes down, and is replaced by a depressed section that is wider (more capacity) and that could be decked over.

[@explorationgmer1336]

Anyone wants to go and explorer

[@danielford5294]

Once again another fine example of tax money (not so) well spent!

[@railfanningmichael3970]

I think its a waste of money not finishing the Highways

[@peanutbutter2597]

Bicycle bicycle bicycle

[@cr1m203]

So wait, the media is finally exposing wasted tax dollars doing nothing? So now can we tax payers get a refund finally?

[@rjmcallister1888]

Your tax dollars at work. Sort of.

[@ralphkramden2089]

CT is SHADY AF!

[@tomservo5007]

we do have a lot of trees

[@minniewood1264]

You guys should just quit really. What’s the point of you.