Rhode Island Route 78 - History

History

In the mid-1950s, the Rhode Island Department of Public Works (RIDPW) put forward a proposal to create a four-lane "relocation" of Route 3 in Westerly. This relocated highway was to connect with Interstate 95, and when planned, the route was to exist farther east then it does currently. During the late 1950s, the RIDPW moved the location of the bypass to its current location, creating a 4.8 miles (7.7 km) long bypass of Westerly and connecting with Interstate 95 in Stonington, Connecticut. The route was proposed to begin at an interchange with U.S. Route 1 near Westerly State Airport, take an arc expressway and into Connecticut. First estimated to cost $4 million (1959 USD), construction of the new Route 78 Expressway was planned to begin in 1961 and finish in 1963, but lack of funds held off construction for several years.

In 1967, the state highway officials in Connecticut began to collaborate with Rhode Island officials to construct the new Route 78 Expressway in both states. The plan became detailed as Route 78 would start at US 1 in Rhode Island, continue over the Pawcatuck River into Connecticut, where it follow Route 2 over to Interstate 95 where it would form an interchange 91A with the interstate. However, this new interchange and extension were pulled by 1971, due to lack of funding. By 1974, the cost had ballooned to $12.8 million (1974 USD) along with a budget crisis around that time, the two states scaled down the project from at an intersection with US 1 to an intersection with CT 2. The bypass was finally constructed in the late 1970s, and opened to traffic in 1979. After a number of head-on collisions, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation added medians to the highway, and in 2004, the bypass was given the memorial name of Veterans Way, which was proposed in 2002.

In 1961, during the time of the proposals, the New York State Department of Transportation to extend of the Long Island Expressway another 55 miles (89 km) further from Riverhead, New York to Westerly, Rhode Island using a multi-span bridge across the Long Island Sound. The bridge was to extend from Orient Point, New York to Watch Hill, Rhode Island, and although it was never added to the interstate highway plans, the theory of a new bridge was restarted in 1979, with a feasibility study. However, officials from Rhode Island and New York were both uninterested from continuing the project.