Primary Highway 295

Primary Highway 295 (P295) is an auxiliary Primary Highway located entirely within the city of Cacklington, Cape Pleasant. The road, which runs for a mere 2.11 kilometers, connects to P95 at each end, and serves the sole purpose of providing easy access via two inclines from downtown Cacklington to the Cacklington Plateau. Notable about P295 is the lack of any cardinal direction on signage, a result of the fact that the road forms almost a complete circle, and the fact that it features several at-grade intersections on the Plateau, a rarity in the Primary Highway System.

Route Description
P295 begins at Exit 23 on P95 (which is also multiplexed with S82 and S84 at this point), at an interchange that provides only access from P95 south to P295 and from P295 to P95 north. Part of this interchange is also combined with Exit 24, which serves several local streets east of downtown Cacklington. The freeway then begins to climb onto the Cacklington Plateau, and maintains a remarkably rural character that is spoiled only by the view of the city skyline to the northwest. An interesting feature of the climb is that at one point the two carriageways cross over each other, a result of the cliffside geography. After about 0.77 km, P295 merges with Tertiary Highway 715, the Plateau Expressway, at a full three-way interchange. T715 already existed when P295 was built, and has been only minimally improved since, so it has the character of a completely different road, featuring five at-grade intersections (four of which are with T787) and a lower speed limit of only 75 km/h.

After multiplexing with T715 for 0.69 km, the two routes split at the fifth at-grade intersection on the P295 portion of the Plateau Expressway, and P295 proceeds back down off the Plateau on a 0.65 km long grade. At the bottom it ends at a trumpet interchange with P95 that also provides limited access to Cobb Avenue, which itself connects to Aydevlin Boulevard. P295 traffic defaults onto P95 north towards Cordale.

History
Plans for a freeway connecting downtown Cacklington with the Cacklington Plateau have existed since P95 was first completed through Cacklington in the early 1960s, as it was hoped that a high-speed connection to the fast-growing financial center would spur development in the relatively stagnant Plateau. The Plateau had been linked to the valley by road since the 1910s, when T787 (Shortcut Road) was completed to Blackwolf Marina, but this winding mountain road quickly proved insufficient due to its inability to accomodate expansion and lack of easy connection to major roadways on either end, and even after P95 was completed up the Cacklington Grade in 1969 (prior to this it ended at Cobb Avenue - parts of the former carriageways are still in use as on- and off-ramps for P295) the route around the rim of the valley was still too circuitous.

The completion of the Plateau Rail Link in 1970 and Plateau Expressway (T715) in 1971 finally prompted the regional DOT into action, and to speed up construction, the project was set to bid using plans that were already drafted up as part of one of the 1960s proposals. CPDOT broke ground on October 1st, 1971, and the road opened to traffic on December 1st, 1973. However, the designation of P295 was not originally intended for this new road. It was instead intended to be signed as a relocation/extension of T715, with a realigned T787 taking over the former routing of T715, but shortly before the road opened to traffic, Cacklington City Councilman Ronnie Clemments petitioned the region to designate the road as a primary highway, and the idea received overwhelming support. VSDOT approved the road as P295, and T715 signs were quickly replaced, just in time for the road's opening.