CONNECTING GREATER HARTFORD WITH BRADLEY AIRPORT: The CT 20 Expressway, known locally as the Bradley Airport Connector, opened to traffic in July 1961 at a cost of $3.9 million. The 4.0-mile-long, four-lane route connects I-91 (EXIT 40) in Windsor Locks with East Granby. A spur of the CT 20 Expressway, which carries the unsigned designation CT 401, extends north into Bradley International Airport, site of the former Windsor Locks Air Force Base. None of the exits are numbered on either highway.

In the early 1990's, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) reconstructed the CT 20 / I-91 interchange as part of the I-91 expansion and HOV lane project. To accommodate current and future traffic demands, all ramps between the two expressways are two lanes wide. In addition, a new interchange was constructed on the CT 20 Expressway for Old County Road. The CT 20 reconstruction project was completed in 1994.

According to ConnDOT, the CT 20 Expressway carries approximately 40,000 vehicles per day (AADT).

EXTENDING WEST AND EAST: In the early-to-mid 1960's, both the Connecticut Highway Department and the Tri-State Transportation Commission recommended extending the CT 20 Expressway two miles west in East Granby, where an interchange was to be constructed with the proposed, but never built CT 10 Expressway. The western extension of the CT 20 Expressway, which was originally scheduled for completion by 1971, was to provide access from Hartford's western suburbs to Bradley Airport.

Around the same time, a proposal was floated for an eastern extension of the CT 20 Expressway. When the proposal was first introduced in 1961, the CT 140 Expressway (as it was then shown) was to connect Windsor to Bolton, providing Hartford with an outer belt route. Later in the 1960's, the Capital Planning Region proposed an eastern extension of the CT 20 Expressway to I-84 in Vernon. It was cited as a "future needs" proposal for construction after 1975.

SOURCES: Regional Highways: Status Report, Tri-State Transportation Commission (1962); Connecticut Highway Needs, Connecticut Highway Department (1967); Planning for the Future, Connecticut Highway Department (1968); "Interstate 91, Hartford to Enfield, Connecticut: Administrative Action Final Environmental Impact Statement and Section 4(f) Statement," Federal Highway Administration and Connecticut Department of Transportation (1981); "Grounded in Bradley's History," The Hartford Courant (4/19/1999); Scott Oglesby; Alexander Svirsky.

• CT 20 and CT 140 shields by Barry L. Camp.
  
• Lightpost by Millerbernd Manufacturing Company.
  

CT 20 EXPRESSWAY LINKS:

• CT 20 (Greg Amy)
  
• CT 20 (Scott Oglesby)
  
• Hartford's Proposed Freeway Network (Scott Oglesby)
  
• Expressway Plans (1964 map) (Regional Plan Association)
  
• Bradley International Airport (Connecticut Department of Transportation)
  

CURRENT METRO COMMUTE ROAD CONDITIONS:

• Construction and Accident Delays
  
• Live Traffic Cams
  

OFF-SITE EXIT LISTINGS:

• CT 20 exit list by Jay Hogan.
  

VIEW OR SUBMIT YOUR RATING TO RATETHEROADS.COM:

• CT 20 Expressway
  

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