Vermont Route127 (VT127) is a state highway in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. It currently exists in two segments: a signed, locally maintained portion in the city of Burlington and the town of Colchester, and an unsigned, state-maintained portion within the town of Colchester. The southern terminus of the signed segment is at Pearl Street in downtown Burlington. Its northern terminus is at U.S. Route2 and U.S. Route7 in Colchester. The unsigned segment is little more than the southern leg of a wye connection between US2/ US7 and VT2A.
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Vermont Route 127
Map of Chittenden County in western Vermont with VT127 highlighted in red
VT127 was assigned in the early 1940s as a loop route off US2 and US7 through Burlington and southern Colchester, where it ended at the junction of Bay Road and US2/ US7. It was extended slightly eastward to VT2A in 1950. The majority of the route in Burlington was moved onto a new limited-access highway—named the Winooski Valley Parkway and also known as the Burlington Beltline—in the 1970s and 1980s. A later realignment in Colchester moved the signed northern terminus of VT127 to the junction of Blakely/Severance Road and US2/ US7; however, the portion of VT127 added in 1950 was left unchanged. As a result, the route now exists in two segments.
Route description
VT127 begins at Pearl Street in the city of Burlington. The route heads north as a one-way couplet along North Champlain Street (northbound) and Park Street (southbound) through the Old North End of the city to Manhattan Drive. VT127 northbound follows Manhattan Drive for one block west to Park Street, where both directions of VT127 come together and turn onto a two-lane limited-access highway named the Winooski Valley Parkway and locally known as the Burlington Beltline. The route has one interchange with North Avenue and another with Plattsburgh Avenue, before reverting to an at-grade highway at the Winooski River.[5]
Now in Colchester, VT127 heads north along Heineberg Drive and Prim Road to West Lakeshore Drive. It then travels east along the shoreline of Malletts Bay to Blakely Road, where it continues eastward onto Blakely to its northern terminus, as signed, at US2 and US7.[5] However, another segment of VT127 exists farther north in Colchester as the southern leg of the wye connection between US2/ US7 and VT2A.[2] This part of VT127 is not signed as such; it is marked as "To VT2A" from northbound US2 and US7 and "To VT127" from northbound VT2A.[5]
History
VT127 was assigned in the early 1940s as a loop route off U.S. Route2 and U.S. Route7 between the city of Burlington and the village of Colchester by way of the Burlington Bay and Malletts Bay shorelines.[3][4] A short, 0.147-mile-long (0.237km) highway between US2/ US7 and VT2A was added to the state highway system in 1950 as an extension of VT127.[6]
VT127 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.[7][8][9] A new limited-access highway, named the Burlington Beltline, was built ca. 1971 between Manhattan Drive and North Avenue near the Ethan Allen Homestead.[10] It was added to the state highway system in 1971 as a realignment of VT127.[6] The route now left Pearl Street at Park Street and followed Park north to the southern end of the new highway.[11][12] Ownership and maintenance of the Burlington Beltline was transferred to the city of Burlington in 1980.[6] An extension of the Beltline northwest to the Winooski River opened to traffic as part of VT127 in the mid-1980s.[10] VT127 was later truncated to the junction of Pearl and Park Streets.
In Colchester, VT127 was initially routed on Heineberg Drive, Porters Point Road, Church Road, Lakeshore Drive, and Bay Road.[8][13] 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 US2 and US7, bypassing East Lakeshore Drive and Bay Road.[1][14] The latter realignment severed the locally maintained portion of VT127 from the state-maintained section to the north; however, the latter is still designated, though not signed, as part of VT127.[2][15]
Future
VT 127 has a proposed interchange with VT 289 near the Heineberg bridge in Colchester.
Vermont Route127 Connector is an unsigned connector route between VT127 and North Avenue in northern Burlington. The 0.37-mile-long (0.60km) route consists solely of the interchange between the two highways.[1]
General Highway Map – Town of Colchester (Map). Cartography by Vermont Agency of Transportation Highway Planning Division. Vermont Agency of Transportation. 1982. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
General Highway Map – Town of Colchester(PDF) (Map). Cartography by Vermont Agency of Transportation Policy and Planning Division. Vermont Agency of Transportation. 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Vermont_Route_127, and is written by contributors.
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