Vermont Route 127 - History

History

VT 127 was assigned in the early 1940s as a loop route off U.S. Route 2 and U.S. Route 7 between the city of Burlington and the village of Colchester by way of the Burlington Bay and Malletts Bay shorelines. A short, 0.147-mile (0.237 km) long highway between US 2 / US 7 and VT 2A was added to the state highway system in 1950 as an extension of VT 127.

VT 127 originally began at the junction of Pearl Street and Winooski Avenue in Burlington and followed Pearl Street, North Avenue, and Plattsburg Avenue through the city. A new limited-access highway, named the Burlington Beltline, was built ca. 1971 between Manhattan Drive and North Avenue near the Ethan Allen Homestead. It was added to the state highway system in 1971 as a realignment of VT 127. The route now left Pearl Street at Park Street and followed Park north to the southern end of the new highway. Ownership and maintenance of the Burlington Beltline was transferred to the city of Burlington in 1980. An extension of the Beltline northwest to the Winooski River opened to traffic as part of VT 127 in the mid-1980s. VT 127 was later truncated to the junction of Pearl and Park Streets.

In Colchester, VT 127 was initially routed on Heineberg Drive, Porters Point Road, Church Road, Lakeshore Drive, and Bay Road. The route was realigned through the town between 1982 and 2005 to follow Prim Road, a northward continuation of Heineberg Drive, to Lakeshore Drive, and to follow Blakely Road to US 2 and US 7, bypassing East Lakeshore Drive and Bay Road. The latter realignment severed the locally maintained portion of VT 127 from the state-maintained section to the north; however, the latter is still designated, though not signed, as part of VT 127.