Interstate 84: Information from Answers.com

Interstate 84
Main route of the Interstate Highway System

Length:

231 mi (372 km)

Formed:

1971^{[citation needed]}

West end:

I-81/I-380/US 6 in Dunmore, PA

Major
junctions:

Future I-86/NY 17 in Middletown, NY

I-87 in Newburgh, NY

I-91 in Hartford, CT

East end:

Mass Pike I-90/Mass Pike in Sturbridge, MA

Interstate 84 (abbreviated I-84) is an Interstate Highway extending from Dunmore, Pennsylvania (near Scranton) at an intersection with Interstate 81 to Sturbridge, Massachusetts, at an interchange with the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90). I-84 has mile-log junction numbering in Pennsylvania; otherwise, exit numbers are sequential. There is also a separate I-84 in the Northwestern United States.

Route description

Lengths
	mi	km
PA	54	87
NY	71	114
CT	98	158
MA	8	13
Total	231	372

Pennsylvania

Interstate 84 starts in Pennsylvania at Interstate 81 in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, a suburb east of Scranton. The first two miles (3 km) are concurrent with Interstate 380. The two split in hilly country outside the city, with I-380 going southeast through the Poconos and I-84 continuing almost due east into Wayne and Pike counties. The Pennsylvania section is the only segment of I-84 that uses mile-based exit numbers; it began replacing sequential numbers in 2001.

This section of Pennsylvania is very lightly populated, and there are no major settlements on or near the interstate, although it offers access to popular outdoor recreation areas such as Lake Wallenpaupack and Promised Land State Park. Its right-of-way is very wide, with a large median strip between the two roadways as it passes through densely wooded country, except for the swampy areas in southern Wayne County. The only development along the road are its easternmost miles in the state, where US 6 and 209 start to parallel closely and form a commercial strip just south of Matamoras, right before the state line.

New York

Main article: Interstate 84 in New York

An overlook along I-84 near Port Jervis, New York. The road is also visible left center, immediately left of the large tree in the foreground.

I-84 enters New York by crossing both the Delaware and Neversink rivers on a long bridge south of Port Jervis, the first large settlement near the highway. The first mile of the road in New York runs along the New Jersey state line, then curves to the north to climb the Shawangunks and cross Orange County, where it forms one leg of a distribution "golden triangle" with NY 17 (soon to be Interstate 86) and the Thruway (I-87). The Thruway Authority maintains I-84 within the state, except for the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge across the Hudson River at Newburgh.

East of the bridge and the city of Beacon, I-84 continues to head east across Dutchess County, beginning to turn south in the mountainous areas east of the Taconic State Parkway and into Putnam County. At Brewster, where Interstate 684 heads south towards the New York City suburbs, the road resumes its eastern course into Connecticut, closely paralleled by US 6 and 202.

Connecticut

I-84 and downtown Waterbury

The interstate's first exit is at the state line, where it enters the city of Danbury. Here it is designated the Yankee Expressway. Two miles to the east, where US 7 comes in from the south at Danbury Fair Mall and joins I-84, it turns to the north. At the next exit, routes 6 and 202 join the road.

The four-way concurrency ends after 3 miles (4.8 km), when 7 and 202 split off north towards New Milford. Route 6 leaves the interstate at the next exit, and I-84 continues east across the countryside. At Exit 11 it turns to the northeast and descends to cross the Housatonic River on the Rochambeau Bridge, into New Haven County, then climbs into higher ground to the city of Waterbury, which it passes on a elevated viaduct with the eastbound and westbound lanes on different levels. Here the CT 8 expressway intersects.

The eastern heading continues past Waterbury to Milldale, where Interstate 691 splits off in that direction. This section has many left-hand exits and entrances and sharp curves, which were built for a planned network of freeways. I-84 heads northeast towards New Britain and Hartford, the state capital and the largest community along its eastern length. After intersecting Interstate 91, the road crosses the Connecticut River on the Bulkeley Bridge, oldest on the Interstate system, it becomes the Wilbur Cross Highway and continues towards the northeast.

The last exit in Connecticut is Exit 74, an exit for Route 171. I-84 crosses the Massachusetts border in the town of Union.

Massachusetts

The Wilbur Cross Highway continues on Interstate 84 after the highway crosses the state line. I-84 only has three exits in Massachusetts, before ending at Interstate 90, the Massachusetts Turnpike. I-84 ends at Exit 9 of I-90, which is located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, 8 miles (13 km) into the state, making the Massachusetts section of the highway the shortest distance within any of the four states it traverses.

History

The Road to Providence

Interstate 84 was originally to head east from Hartford, Connecticut to Providence, Rhode Island.

Original route

The original route of Interstate 84 would have used present-day Interstate 384 to Bolton, Connecticut, then along a never-built section of freeway that would have connected to the US 6 bypass around Willimantic, Connecticut. Another never-built freeway section would have connected it to Interstate 395 and extended I-84 onto State Road 695 in Connecticut, the easternmost portion of the Connecticut Turnpike in Plainfield, Connecticut. From there, it would have roughly followed US 6 through western Rhode Island to connect to the present-day US 6 freeway in Johnston. From there, a freeway from Olneyville Square to the Interstate 95/Interstate 195 interchange was briefly considered, but abandoned in favor of what later became the Route 6-10 Connector.

Environmental concerns

Though the route was basically set in stone in Connecticut, many issues remained in Rhode Island, the biggest of which were major environmental concerns about how the freeway would affect the Scituate Reservoir, which is the main drinking water supply for Providence.

Alternate route

In an attempt to ease environmental concerns, an alternate route was briefly studied in Rhode Island that would have connected Interstate 84 to the present-day Route 37 freeway. This would have allowed construction of I-84 south of the Scituate Reservoir. Major community opposition caused this plan, as well as I-84 as a whole, to be scrapped.

Long range plans

In the 1992 long-range transportation plan released by the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, a freeway has been added along the original route of Interstate 84 that will connect to the CT 695 freeway on the Rhode Island/Connecticut border^[1].

I-86 relation

The section of I-84 between East Hartford, Connecticut (at the present-day junction with Interstate 384) and Sturbridge, Massachusetts (Interstate 90) was for a time signed as Interstate 86 (unrelated to present-day Interstate 86 in New York and Pennsylvania). Signs stating "I-84 Ends, I-86 to Boston" (eastbound) and "I-86 Ends, I-84 to Hartford" (westbound) were posted where the change took place. Exit numbering on I-86 was that of the road's predecessor, Route 15, in a sequence beginning on New York's Hutchinson River Parkway. Exits were renumbered to correspond with the rest of I-84 in Connecticut when the road was redesignated in 1984. The present I-384 as well as the present US 6 bypass near Willimantic, both of which were a part of what was then I-84's planned easternly continuation, were also numbered I-84 prior to 1984 even though they lacked any direct connection to the rest of I-84 at that time. (One had to use Silver Lane in East Hartford to travel between the two stretches of the highway.) These two sections were re-numbered I-384 and Rte 6 when what was then I-86 was re-numbered I-84.

I-84 toll-free in New York

From 1991 through 2006, Interstate 84 in New York was a toll-free component of the New York State Thruway system. It was transferred by the state DOT to the Thruway Authority in the early 1990s in order to capitalize on that agency's steady revenue stream from upstate sources. It was returned to NYSDOT in October 2006. (I-84's Hudson River crossing, the Hamilton Fish Newburgh-Beacon Bridge is under the New York State Bridge Authority. It carries an eastbound-only toll of $1 for passenger vehicles.) In the early 1990s, the maintenance fees for I-84 in New York were transferred to the New York State Thruway Authority and the monies for that purpose came from tolls on I-190 in downtown Buffalo, more than 300 miles (480 km) away. On Monday, October 30, 2006, the Thruway Authority voted to return maintenance costs to the New York Department of Transportation and the tolls in Buffalo are planned to be removed. The I-190 tolls are considered to be one of the principal causes of highway congestion in Buffalo.^[2]

Widening projects in Waterbury

A widening project along the congested stretch of I-84 through Waterbury and Cheshire, Connecticut has been beset by cost overruns, delays, and construction defects involving storm drains ^[3], as state and federal officials have launched criminal investigations stemming from this project. This episode has waned local enthusiasm for a proposed $2 Billion reconstruction of the Mixmaster interchange in downtown Waterbury ^[4] Cost estimates for the Mixmaster replacement have increased to $3 billion.^[5] CT Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has begun a lawsuit against the contractor and an engineering firm in response to threats from the U.S. DOT to withhold funds from the project.^[6] On May 18, 2007 the Waterbury Republican-American reported this area had defective light poles.^[7] while Governor M. Jodi Rell released a scathing audit report of the construction disaster.^[8] A number of DOT personnel were either fired or reprimanded following the scandal. Meanwhile the FBI and a federal grand jury are investigating the now-defunct construction company and the same DOT officials, which may eventually lead to criminal charges in the case.

Future

I-84 does not yet have a direct interchange with the Thruway (Interstate 87), but a direct link is nearing completion as of December 2008^[update]. Currently the connection uses NY 300.^[9]