INTERSTATE 89

'Interstate 89' (abbreviated 'I-89') is an interstate highway in the New England portion of the United States. As with all odd-numbered primary interstates, I-89 is signed as a north-south highway. However, the northwest-to-southeast path the road actually takes serves in two capacities. First, with the cancellation of Interstate 92^[1], it is the closest thing to an east-west interstate highway above Interstate 90 in New England. The highway also serves as the main connection between the major cities of Montreal, Canada, and Boston, Massachusetts.

Contents

Route description

New Hampshire

Vermont

Exit list

New Hampshire

Vermont

Auxiliary routes

References

Route description

|-
|NH || 60.80^[2] || 97.89
|-
|VT || 130.25^[3] || 209.70
|-
|Total || 191.05 || 307.59
|}

Major cities 'Bolded cities' are officially-designated control cities for signs
★ 'Concord, New Hampshire' ★ 'White River Junction, Vermont' ★ 'Lebanon, New Hampshire' ★ 'Barre, Vermont' ★ 'Montpelier, Vermont' ★ 'Burlington, Vermont' ★ 'St. Albans, Vermont' ★ 'Montreal, Quebec' (via Route 133, A-35 and A-10)

New Hampshire

Starting at an intersection with Interstate 93 in the town of Bow, just south of the New Hampshire capital of Concord, the highway runs a northwest path through the Dartmouth-Lake Sunapee Region. Guide signs for exit 16 southeast of Lebanon display the name "Purmort", a made up name taken from the name of an early settler in order to meet naming conventions for interstate exits. However, a community by that name has now taken root around the exit. The highway continues on, passing through Lebanon, in which Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center is located. A few miles from this point is Dartmouth College.

Vermont

Crossing the Connecticut River into Vermont, I-89 turns northward about 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the New Hampshire state line, and continues through rolling hills along the high-country of Central Vermont. The interstate's highest point was said to be in the town of Brookfield, although the sign stating this was taken down in the late 1990s.
Another directional shift, to the northwest, occurs right after the interchange for Montpelier. For the next 40 miles (64 kilometres), I-89's path isn't so much chosen as it is logical: paralleling the Winooski River and U.S. Route 2, the highway cuts through the section of the Appalachians known as the Green Mountains, and is surrounded by peaks of over 4,000 feet (1,219 metres), such as Camel's Hump.
Interstate 89 also is unique due to one instance of its signage. Just beyond (Vermont) Exit 9 on both sides of the highway, about 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of Montpelier, signs showing the distance to the next control cities are completely in metric. While there are many instances of signs being in both miles and kilometres, this is the only case of solely metric in the entire Interstate System.^[4] Interstate 19 in Arizona used to be the other "only signed in metric" interstate in the U.S., but has been changed over in recent years as the last 2 km have been changed. Speed limit signs have always been in mph.
Just outside of Burlington, the highway turns northward. Also at this turn is where the only ''official'' auxiliary highway starts, Interstate 189. A second highway, Interstate 289, was proposed as a beltway through Burlington's northeastern suburbs in the 1980s; amidst controversy, the highway has only been partially completed as Vermont Route 289, a Super two roadway. It has yet to directly meet its parent.
Heading north from Burlington, the landscape quickly fades from suburban development into rolling hills more characteristic to Northern New England, providing a vista overlooking Lake Champlain. The highway ends at the Canadian Border, near Highgate Springs. Although the divided highway continues about 5 miles (8 kilometres) into Phillipsburg, Quebec as Route 133, this changes back to a two-lane road, until Autoroute 35 starts outside of St. Jean, Quebec, and continues to Montreal.
The I-89 border crossing is the only instance where an Interstate entering Quebec does not become an Autoroute upon entering the Canadian province. However, Autoroute 35 will be extended in the next few years, creating a freeway-to-freeway connection.[1]

Exit list

County	Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
New Hampshire
Merrimack	Bow			NH 3A	At-grade intersection.
		Southern terminus of I-89 designation.
		0.0		I-93 to I-393/US 4 - Concord, Seacoast (north); Manchester, Boston (south)
		0.2	1	Logging Hill Road - Bow
	Concord	2.1	2	NH 13 (Clinton Street) - Concord
		3.8	3	Stickney Hill Road	Northbound exit, southbound entrance.
	Hopkinton	6.6	4	NH 103 - Hopkinton	Northbound exit, southbound entrance.
		8.5	5	US 202/NH 9 - Henniker, Keene (north); Hopkinton (south)	LEFT EXIT northbound
		10.4	6	NH 127 - Contoocook, West Hopkinton
	Warner	14.2	7	NH 103 - Davisville, Contoocook
		17.4	8	NH 103 - Warner	Northbound exit, southbound entrance.
		20.0	9	20 px NH 103 - Warner, Bradford
	Sutton	27.2	10	North Road	To Sutton via NH 114.
	New London	31.2	11	NH 11 east (King Hill Road) - New London
		I-89 and NH 11 form a 3.7 mile long concurrency.
		34.9	12	NH 11 west/NH 103A - New London, Sunapee
Sullivan	Sunapee	37.0	12A	To NH 114 - Georges Mills, Springfield
	Grantham	43.0	13	NH 10 south - Grantham, Croydon
		Southern terminus of I-89/ NH 10 concurrency.
		48.2	14	North Grantham	Northbound entrance, southbound exit.
Grafton	Enfield	50.2	15	Smith Pond Road/Old Route 10
		52.0	16	Eastman Hill Road - Purmort	To Whaleback Ski Area.
	Lebanon	54.1	17	US 4 to NH 4A - Enfield, Canaan
		56.2	18	NH 120 - Lebanon, Hanover	To Dartmouth College.
		Northern terminus of I-89/ NH 10 concurrency.
		58.2	19	US 4/NH 10 north - Lebanon, West Lebanon
		60.3	20	NH 12A - West Lebanon, Claremont
Vermont
Windsor	Hartford	0.6		I-91 - White River Junction (north); Brattleboro (south)	To US 5. Norwich: use US 5 north. North Hartland: use US 5 south.
	Hartford (Quechee)	3.9	1	US 4 - Woodstock, Rutland (north); Quechee (south)	Artery road to Quechee, Woodstock, Rutland, and Killington Ski Resort.
	Sharon	13.4	2	VT 132 to VT 14 - Sharon, South Royalton (north)
	Royalton	22.1	3	VT 107 to VT 14 - Bethel, Royalton (north); Rutland (south)	To VT 100.
Orange	Randolph	30.9	4	VT 66 to VT 12 - Randolph	To VT 14.
	Willamstown	43.0	5	20 px VT 64 to 20 px VT 12/VT 14 - Northfield, Williamstown	To Norwich University from points south.
Washington	Berlin	46.9	6	VT 63 to VT 14 - South Barre, Barre
		50.3	7	VT 62 to US 302 - Berlin, Barre
	Montpelier	52.9	8	US 2 to 20 px VT 12 - Montpelier, St. Johnsbury (south)	Northeastern Vermont via east. To Norwich University from points north.
	Middlesex	58.7	9	US 2 to VT 100B - Middlesex, Moretown	parallels I-89 here. Access to Sugarbush Resort and Mad River Glen via VT 100B from points south.
	Waterbury	63.8	10	VT 100 to US 2 - Waterbury, Stowe	Access to Sugarbush and Mad River Glen from points north. Bolton Valley ski resort from points south. To Ben & Jerry's Factory Headquarters.
Chittenden	Richmond	78.4	11	US 2 to VT 117 - Richmond, Williston (north), Bolton (south)	To VT 289. To Bolton Valley from points north.
	Williston	84.0	12	VT 2A to US 2 - Williston, Essex Junction	To Burlington International Airport from points south.
	South Burlington	87.5	13	25 px I-189 to US 7 - Shelburne, Burlington (north), Middlebury (south)
		88.7	14E-W	US 2 - South Burlington, Burlington	To Burlington, University of Vermont. Access to Burlington International.
	Winooski	90.5	15	20 px VT 15 - Essex Junction, Winooski	To Saint Michael's College. Northbound exit, southbound entrance.
	Colchester	91.5	16	US 2/US 7 to VT 15 - Winooski, Colchester
		97.9	17	US 2/US 7 - Lake Champlain Islands, Milton (north); Colchester (south)
Franklin	Georgia	106.6	18	US 7/VT 104A - Fairfax, Georgia Center (north); Milton (south)
	St. Albans	113.8	19	VT 104/VT 36/US 7 - St. Albans
		117.6	20	US 7 to VT 207 - St. Albans
	Swanton	123.4	21	20 px 20 px VT 78/US 7 - Swanton
	Highgate	129.8	22	20 px US 7 south - Highgate Springs	Northern terminus of US 7. Northbound: last exit before Canada.
		130.3	United States/Canada border. Northern terminus of I-89. I-89 north becomes Route 133.

Auxiliary routes

★ Interstate 289 was originally slated to go around Burlington, but it was never completed. The lone completed section of the highway is signed as Vermont Route 289.

References

1. I-92 (unbuilt)
2. New Hampshire Department of Transportation Route Log
3. Vermont Agency of Transportation 2004 State Highway Traffic Log
4. Vermont Roads - I-89