On Friday, Connecticut’s State Bond Commission approved $537 million in transportation projects. (The full commission agenda is here.) While the list of projects includes funds for road and bridge repair, transit and planning, it also commits the State to the widening of I-84 in Waterbury between exits 23 and 25A. The approved funds put the state on track to put the project out to bid by spring 2014.
The three-mile widening will cost the state up to $500 million, or $167 million a mile. To put this in perspective, Connecticut receives just $486 million a year in federal funds for all road and bridge projects. In a statement, TSTC Executive Director Veronica Vanterpool said:
While the Department of Transportation has made progress in tackling a long backlog of repair needs, the state’s road conditions remain dismal and ten percent of bridges are structurally deficient. Committing to another pricey road widening means less funding available for maintenance, and slower going ahead. Furthermore, decades of experience in Connecticut and across the country have shown that highway expansion leads to sprawl development, which increases traffic and quickly re-congests the road.
Over the weekend, USA TODAY featured the poor condition of Connecticut’s roads in the lead paragraph of an article about the country’s rough roads. According to an analysis by TRIP and USA TODAY, Connecticut has the second-highest percentage of road-miles in “poor” condition in the nation.
The Bond Commission also approved $143 million in bus and rail projects; $2.5 million for “planning and facilitation efforts to support transit-oriented development projects statewide,” at least some of which will reportedly go to the Stamford Transportation Center; and $500,000 in Department of Economic and Community Development funds for downtown revitalization in New Britain, near the CTfastrak bus rapid transit stop. Vanterpool praised the transit and TOD funds as “the types of smart, forward-looking projects the state needs more of.”
I can concede, from first hand experience, that this area has a great deal of congestion that needs addressing, as it was the one part of 84 that was stopped on my Friday trip out of the city. However, it seemed from the active on ramps that a lot of the volume and congestion may have been from local merging. Looking at the aerial image, it strikes me that there is very limited network connectivity on either side of the Highway (my 3-year-old keeps asking me why it’s not called “the Lowway” when they are on the ground).
I wonder if an alternate proposal could be developed to us the same $$, or less, to create stronger hierarchy of roads with greater network connectivity and efficiency, potentially reducing the volume of local traffic merging with the Highway. You would evaluate it’s benefits not only on efficiency of throughput, but on trip reduction and increased land-use and development value long other with other community outcomes like safety, walkability, etc. It would be a great accomplishment to show how much more we could do with fundins for both transportation and community development with these funds.
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Ive been stuck there in traffic many times, but my experience is that bad design, not capacity constraint causes the constant backups. Ethan is right on, the problem is merging.
Same a few miles away where a lane is added and then dropped in the middle of the forest.
[…] Connecticut has elected to spend up to $500 million adding two lanes to I-85 over a three-mile stretch in Waterbury. Image: Tri-State Transportation Campaign […]
You would think there would have been a study, well publicized,as to the cause of the problems and the best solutions, this done as part of environmental impact statements for the project. What happened here?
[…] to be outdone by Connecticut and New Jersey, it looks like New York State is also looking to join the highway widening […]
[…] they encourage motorists to drive faster and take longer to cross. History has also taught us that widening roads over time is not a solution for traffic […]
first of all, and i expect the heat i’ll take for this, but half of the problem on 84 is the sea of ny plates, and to a lesser degree, nj plates. go home. let’s be honest, there isnt THAT much money being spent here, as most of the people coming out of the city are on the way further north.
that being said, 95 is a joke no matter which way you are going. it is well beyond its limits, closely followed by the parkway. a lot of us have taken to 684 to 84 as an alternative which has led to the same problem.
a lot of you have mentioned “the merges” as the problem. no offense, but really? first time on the interstate? merges are ALWAYS the problem. why do you think there are express lanes into major cities such as *ahem* NYC?
couple of things, one, ever notice coming east on 84 it always seems to back up danbury and on from an exit only and after every “slow vehicle” lane? hmmm…stay in the “thru” lanes. see what happens. CT troopers have now placed a car at the exit only just past the rest area for a reason. ct,ny,nj doesnt matter. try and cheat you’re getting nabbed.
second, calm down. please. we are all i repeat ALL pissed off if we hit the CT border eastbound any later that 3 pm. full admission here, i am a truck driver who lives just north of hartford. typically, ive cruised just fine up until i hit my own states border. than i start watching my clock, realizing i may run out of my dot hrs, realizing im an hour from home on a friday night at 4pm, and realizing im not going to be home till 7. it
sucks boys and girls…84 sucks, 95 sucks…and so forth. calm down, it is what it is.
ALL that being said,
that little stretch of 84 thru waterbury will be one of CT’s better spending plans in a LONG time. think about it for just one second. you find me a major urban area with only TWO lanes of interstate. now, take that same urban area and have all traffic merge from 3 lanes, down to 2. hmmm seems widening that 2.7 mi stretch could help. just a tad. it goes both ways thru waterbury. they started to widen it back a few westbound, and created a problem by taking four lanes down to two. a much needed truck climbing lane, then an exit only all go to two before heading to three thru town. none of this makes sense.
anyway all the best, and CALM DOWN
ps
im pretty damn sure Veronica Vanterpool does not travel I-84, or her comments or some of the misguided, armchair musings I have ever heard.
[…] Connecticut Spending 500 Million To Widen A 3 Mile Stretch Of I-84 in Waterbury – Connecticut Approves Borrowing to Widen Three Miles of I-84 | Mobilizing the Region […]
[…] $537 million to spend on transportation projects, about $500 million of which will be used to widen a three-mile segment of Interstate 84 near […]