The freeway was also meant to bring cars into the city and facilitate the east–west flow of traffic between New Haven and its growing western suburbs.

A small portion of the planned freeway extension that was built in Orange during the 1980s was used as a commuter parking lot for more than two decades, but now serves as part of an access road for the Yale-New Haven Health Regional Operations Center.

Pfizer Pharmaceuticals purchased a portion of the Oak Street Connector right-of-way, and built a US$35 million research facility on it.

The Pfizer deal ensured the Oak Street Connector could not be extended beyond its terminus at the Air Rights Parking Garage near Yale-New Haven Hospital.

After the completion of the Pfizer research facility in 2005, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. and several leaders of local civic groups began pushing the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) to study removing part of the existing Oak Street Connector (re-routing traffic onto Legion Avenue and M.L.K.

In addition, both roads would be rebuilt and widened to accommodate increased traffic, and furnished with landscaping and bicycle lanes.