State Route 9 - Ellis Street and State Route 72 interchanges (State Route 72 roadcut), New Britain, Hartford County, Connecticut, USAi

Regional Level Types
State Route 9 - Ellis Street and State Route 72 interchanges (State Route 72 roadcut)	Road Cutting
New Britain	City
Hartford County	County
Connecticut	State
USA	Country

The history of highway construction and designation in this area is confusing, and specimens can be labelled differently depending on when they were collected. Most collecting took place in 1974-5 when the state expressway section in New Britain, referred to then as Route 72, was being constructed and cut through numerous, heavily faulted low basalt ridges. As originally designated, the Route 72 expressway extended from state Route 15 (SE of New Britain), past the planned Interstate 291 interchange (which headed north), toward and past Interstate 84 (W side of New Britain). It was completed in 1979 and many early specimens labels refer to Route 72. In 1986, the planned Interstate 291 (north of Route 72) was completed, but it was redesignated as state Route 9 (most specimens labelled "Route 9, New Britain" come from this section) along with the existing section of state Route 72 south of their intersection connecting to Route 15. The Route 72 expressway section west of the interchange with former I-291 remained designated as state Route 72. But the stretch of Route 72 renamed Route 9 contains the bulk of the mineralized road cuts. Based on modern nomenclature, these are at the Route 9 and Ellis Street interchange area, and at the Route 9 and Route 72 interchange area, which cover about 1 mile of expressway. Though many old labels are not locality specific, the geology and mineralogy are essentially the same throughout most of New Britain, so the exact origin is somewhat academic.

Mineralization is hosted primarily by a myriad of NE-SW trending fault veins cutting basalt and sedimentary rocks and by gas cavities in the basalt. Gray (1982) provides a description of the Columbus Street vein that is relevant to the State Route 9 locality, although not all the same minerals are reported for both localities:



Januzzi (1976) provides an early mineral list. Miller (circa 1986), Hubert et al. (1992) and Scovil (2008) provide additional descriptions. Hubert et al. (1992) give an age of 180 million years ago for the mineralization. The host rocks are about 206 million years old.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References