U.S. Route 7 in Connecticut - Route Description

Route Description

US 7 in Connecticut is also known as Route 7, the Ethan Allen Highway, and Super 7. It is mostly a surface road but has three short expressway sections in the Norwalk and Danbury areas. US 7 begins in Norwalk with a 4-mile (6.4 km) expressway that runs nearly to the Wilton town line. There are three exits on this short section, signed as "The Forty Third Infantry Division Memorial Highway". Exit 1, just past the southern terminus at Interstate 95, leads to the Central Norwalk Business District and US 1. Exit 2 leads to Route 123 which extends from US 1 in Norwalk through the town of New Canaan to the New York State line. After Exit 2, the expressway reduces to four lanes from six. Exit 3 leads to the Merritt Parkway (Route 15) southbound. This interchange was half built and only allows southbound access from the expressway; northbound access is gained via Route 123 at Exit 2. The expressway section ends at Grist Mill Road in Norwalk, about one-half mile past Exit 3.

Near Danbury, another expressway section was built beginning 1-mile (1.6 km) south of Interstate 84 near the Danbury Airport. This section is also signed as "The Forty Third Infantry Division Memorial Highway". Through Danbury proper, Route 7 overlaps with I-84 for about 4 miles (6 km). Through this section of expressway, Routes I-84, US 7, US 6 and US 202 are concurrent. Routes 7 and 202 then leave I-84 at exit 7 and travel on their own expressway for approximately 7 miles (11 km) to just south of the New Milford line. On this section there are two exits. At Exit 11, US 202 exits the expressway and at Exit 12, Route 202 crosses back over Route 7. On southbound Route 7, the exit for Interstate 84 Eastbound is signed as exit 10. There is no exit number for I-84 West because of the concurrency. The Route 7 expressway then bypasses Brookfield to the west and terminates at an intersection with Route 202 at the Fairfield/Litchfield county line.

Route 7 is cosigned with US 202 until central New Milford, where Route 202 turns east with Route 67 while Route 7 continues north. Recent construction has also made large parts of Route 7 between the terminus of the expressway and New Milford a four-lane divided highway with at-grade intersections. North of New Milford center, Route 7 remains a two-lane road through the rest of Connecticut.