Milford’s Long-Awaited Route 162 Repairs Near Completion After Three Years of Traffic Woes

 Nick Sambides Jr.

MILFORD — State Department of Transportation officials say the city’s notorious traffic congestion at Route 162 and Old Gate Lane, caused by three years of repairs, may finally be finished this fall. 

DOT spokesperson Joe Cooper reported that the $3.9 million project — originally budgeted at $3.65 million — has completed its main tasks, including the installation of a new box culvert, bridge, road drainage and underground utilities.

Subcontractor Waters Construction Co., of Bridgeport, is finishing the installation of new sidewalks and drainage this week. Concrete curbing, driveway ramps, metal beam rail, fencing, topsoil seeding and planting and final paving, striping and sign installation will be done on Route 162 (New Haven Avenue), reopening to two full lanes in September.

The relocation of above-ground utility lines will occur in October or November, Cooper said.

The project’s completion can’t come soon enough for motorists and businesses in the area. 

Anthony Monaco, owner of Anthony’s High Tech Auto Center, said he had no idea the project would take so long or cause so much trouble. He and other business owners and workers at the site called it the worst traffic snarl or construction site Milford’s had. 

“It’s a total mess,” he said.

Monaco said his business lost about $250,000 a year in customer billing plus another $10,000 a month in alternate space rentals for equipment that could no longer be parked at his shop, located at 541 New Haven Ave.

The difficulties began with the site itself. New Haven Avenue is one of the busier commercial routes through Milford, connecting downtown to the Woodmont section as it runs east to the West Haven line. 

Just west of the Old Gate intersection is a stream that carries water from the Oyster River into a Milford Land Conservation Trust nature preserve bordering Gulf Pond and Milford Harbor at the Gulf Street bridge. The marshland abuts eight businesses along Route 162, and the new culvert is a convergence point for stream and pond water.

Before the new culvert was installed, some combination of high tides, rainfall, river flow and a full moon would often carry water onto Route 162, said Ron Langlois, general manager at Anthony’s. Flooding at high tide would often push water into the quarter of Anthony’s parking lot closest to the road, he said. Four or five times a year, the water would lap at Anthony’s front door, more than 100 feet from the roadway.

The high water levels meant that state-hired construction contractors had to first dig watertight trenches before replacing the culverts, pipes or bridges. Work was frequently halted, especially during high tide.

Other problems plagued the project over nearly three years. At the start of the job, construction workers discovered that the underground utilities and the road’s water main were in the wrong place and needed to be moved, Langlois said.

“With all the changes the state [contractors] had to do, it drags out the job,” he said.

Construction was recently slowed due to the replacement of underground and overhead utilities, traffic during the final phase of construction, and tide cycles during earlier excavation operations, Cooper said.

As the work continued, the normally two-lane road was narrowed to one in both directions. According to KJ Riccobene, a radio dispatcher for the tow-truck service at Anthony’s, elderly customers stopped coming to the shop due to the traffic and motorists at the red lights frequently blocked Anthony’s lot.

“People didn’t come here because they didn’t think they could get in or out,” Riccobene said.

The excavators, trucks and traffic created constant noise and vibrations, and frequently dug up large clouds of dust during the job, workers at the adjacent Neuro-Spinal Center said.

Most recently, one of the two newly-installed walls along the bridge and road cracked and needed to be replaced, Riccobene said.

Langlois said he admired the various contractors for their patience and cheerfulness during the process and how DOT inspectors seemed to pay close attention to how the contractors performed.

“They are a nonstop group,” he said. “They flow together with their work very well. They do it fast. You never see these guys standing around talking.”

Still, Langlois said, the core issue stems from the 1970s construction of what is now a storage rental facility directly on the stream. He suspects the new culvert remains inadequate for preventing road flooding and was installed because the old one, along with other underground corrugated pipes, was failing and endangering the nearby marshland’s wildlife and habitat.

At its heaviest, the flooding came right to the front door of Anthony’s three or four times a year, he said. He hopes it will stop when the job is finished.

“We are getting there,” Langlois said. “It’s almost finished. That’s the best news here.”

East Norwalk train station 3-week closure begins Saturday: Here is what to know

Katherine Lutge

NORWALK — Train commuters from East Norwalk should prepare to use another station for the next three weeks as Connecticut’s Department of Transportation begins a platform replacement project associated with the Walk Bridge project.

“We know these closures can be an inconvenience, and we appreciate the public’s understanding as this important project moves forward,” said Laoise King, Connecticut Department of Transportation deputy commissioner.

From Saturday, Aug. 17 to Friday, Sept. 6, no trains will stop in East Norwalk while crews demolish the northern platform and build a temporary platform with an access ramp to facilitate the future construction of the new station.

When completed, the station will have high-level boarding platforms on both sides, and new platform canopies. Parking will also be improved, and a designated drop-off lane will be added to both sides.

East Norwalk commuter parking passes will be honored at the South Norwalk train station, but not at the Westport train station. Additionally, the Norwalk Transit District has arranged a shuttle bus from East Norwalk to the South Norwalk Train Station during the weekdays while the station is closed.

“Thank you again to the Norwalk Transit District for partnering with us to provide a free shuttle to ensure customers reach their trains and destinations with ease,” King said. “We thank the public for their continued patience as improvements to the East Norwalk station move forward.”

This is the second time the East Norwalk Train Station has closed this year due to improvement projects connected to the Walk Bridge Replacement project. In March, both the station and the section of East Avenue under the rail bridge were closed while underground utility work was conducted by CDOT and Frontier.

These improvements to Norwalk rail facilities are part of the $1 billion investment from the state to replace the 128-year-old Walk Bridge, which has caused rail delays in recent years.

Several other bridges in Norwalk will be improved along with the new station, which will cut down on the travel time between New Haven and New York.

Norwalk River Valley Trail’s Wilton Loop project under Inland Wetland review

Kendra Baker

WILTON — Work on the nearly mile-long extension proposed for the Norwalk River Valley Trail’s Wilton Loop could begin as early as next spring, but there are still approvals needed before that happens.

Calling for a 0.9-mile addition from where the trail currently ends at Skunk Lane, the project to extend the multi-use trail up through northern Wilton was originally presented in 2020 to the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, which approved sending the plans to the state for approval.

Wilton town officials approved a plan by the Friends of NRVT for the new trail section in 2022, and a $3 million grant was secured the following year.

The trail extension project would bring the east side of the Wilton Loop — which currently extends about 2.25 miles from the intersection of Wolfpit Road and Route 7 to just short of Skunk Lane, according to the NRVT website — to more than 3 miles in length.

“Our mission is to build and maintain a 30-mile, 10-foot wide multi-use trail from Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, passing through Wilton, Ridgefield and Redding and terminating at Rogers Park in Danbury,” NRVT President Charlie Taney said during last week’s Inland Wetlands meeting. “That’s the mission … and we’re close to halfway done.”

But before the latest Wilton section can move forward, the project needs approval from the town's Inland Wetlands and Planning and Zoning commissions — the former of which opened a public hearing on an application for the 4,800-linear-foot trail extension last week.

In addition to 4,800 linear-feet of stone dust trail, Antonio DiCamillo from engineering, architecture and consulting firm Stantec said during the Inland Wetlands Commission's Aug. 8 meeting, the project calls for the construction of a roughly 400-foot boardwalk and creation of two small parking areas.

One of the parking areas would be near the area of the trail after it crosses Skunk Lane and the other would be at the bottom of a steep hill along the trail’s path, DiCamillo said, noting that drainage trails and culvert crossings will be installed to handle storm water.

DiCamillo said the boardwalk — which would include a small overlook area with benches and “educational aspects … like plaques identifying local bird species” — would begin on a part of the trail that reaches a wetland and traverse about halfway through it.  

Noting that a few wetlands pockets were also identified in a section of proposed trail north of the boardwalk, DiCamillo said the plan is to avoid direct impacts to wetlands and “minimize impacts on wooded areas as much as possible” during construction.

While there would be temporary impacts from matting for boardwalks, permanent wetland impacts would be “limited to the piles that (would) be installed for the boardwalk” and disturbance at upland review areas would be limited as much as possible by grading and walls, according to DiCamillo, who said “extensive sediment and erosion controls” would be implemented with “extensive construction oversight.” 

Concerned about potential erosion issues, Wilton's Environmental Affairs Director Mike Conklin requested “beefed up” sediment and erosion control for the project.

In addition to amending that part of the plan, DiCamillo agreed — at the commission’s request — to look into long-eared bat habitat and mark vernal pools, as well as part of a well, on the project map. 

He also agreed to provide information on the number of trees expected to be impacted by the trail extension project and have plans for repairing areas of impact during construction ready for the commission’s Sept. 12 meeting.

The Inland Wetlands Commission public hearing on the application was kept open to give members of the public a chance to provide comment.

Next steps

Once the Inland and Wetlands Commission approves the application — a process that he anticipates to take a couple of months — DiCamillo said it will go to the Zoning Commission for approval. 

After that, he said the application can be sent back to the state Department of Transportation for final review before going out to bid.

“We’re envisioning that it’ll be bid over the winter,” DiCamillo said during last week’s Inland Wetlands meeting. “We can’t really build anything during the winter, so early spring start is kind of what we’re targeting at this point.”

The Wilton Loop will be 10 miles long once completed, according to the NRVT website, and a lot of progress has been made since work first started on it 11 years ago.

The partly-finished west side of the Wilton Loop runs from the Wolfpit Road and Route 7 intersection to Schenck’s Island, through Wilton Center and Merwin Meadows Park before eventually hitting the north end of the loop in Allen’s Meadows at Olmstead Hill Road.

Wallingford's community pool renovation resurfaces after four years, town officials say

Christian Metzger

WALLINGFORD — Work on the Wallingford community pool is likely to resume soon after it stalled in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. 

Mayor Vincent Cervoni said he’s expecting a cost estimate within several days that he'll present to the town council as early as next week to decide how to proceed with the project. 

He said he decided to get an estimate first so the town could reassess the original pool design — which was estimated at $7.4 million — and gauge what could be changed since it's been four years. Usually the town goes out to bid on the project first. 

“We all know that there have been significant economic changes since then, so it will be interesting to see what the cost estimates are,” Cervoni said. 

The last major development on the project was in 2020 when the council voted unanimously to approve the plan to renovate and overhaul the pool, only to have it vetoed by then-mayor William Dickinson Jr. on account of economic concerns during the pandemic. It has been closed for four years, leaving the site to deteriorate with weeds overtaking the emptied pool basin. 

The pool has been a point of contention for residents ever since, with the issue remaining divisive online. Some want it to be restored and reopened as is, some want a splash pad to be installed, while others simply want it filled in and turned into a recreation area to put an end to the headache. 

The divide was sharply seen during the mayoral election last year, with both Cervoni and his Democrat challenger Riley O'Connell making the reopening of the community pool a pillar of their campaign platforms. Now that Cervoni has been in office for eight months, he said he remains committed to seeing the project through. 

“Irrespective of what the council and the public want, that park needs to be redone in some way, shape or form," he said. "And if it's the last pool design that we saw, that could be great. And if that doesn't work there, then we, as far as I'm concerned, there has to be some plan to repurpose or otherwise utilize that park."

The new cost estimate will be re-examining the same plan that was initially drafted in 2019 and entirely overhauls the existing site.

The existing pool is massive — three times larger than an Olympic swimming pool at 43,000 square feet — and its age has proven a costly maintenance concern. The plan calls for ripping it out and replacing it with a smaller 8,000-square-foot-pool, a new bathhouse and picnic pavilion, a splash pad, an expanded parking lot and new landscaping, as well as a lawn for volleyball, a performance stage and other activities. 

With how construction prices have fluctuated since the pandemic, it remains uncertain if the cost for the project would increase substantially. Already the town has committed large resources to other improvement projects, with the new police headquarters and renovation work on the schools. But town leaders said they remain wholly committed to seeing the pool reopened as quickly as possible. 

“To let it fallow is the worst possible option," said Board Chair Joseph Marrone. "So I think the council needs to make a decision: do we want to move forward with the pool and what will we tolerate in terms of the cost or do we want to go in a different direction? I think that between this summer and next summer, we have to come to a decision one way or the other.”  

If cost was a concern, they could break the pool renovation into stages to make it a more incremental expense over time, he said.

One of the things that excited Marrone the most about the plan was the additional uses for the pool area as a multi-use event and community area that could see use outside of the summer pool season and draw in more money for the town. 

“Obviously that space, that parcel isn't that big, so we couldn't have that much there, but there you could certainly do more with it than just have it be a pool a few months a year,” Marrone said. 

Councilor Vincent Testa Jr, was similarly optimistic about seeing it progress soon. 

“I'm still strongly in favor of proceeding with a project to renovate that facility as fully as possible," he said. "So that's been my stand for years and it's still my stand and that's why I'm trying to drive this."

Testa said the reopening of the pool remained such a high priority because of the avenues it opened to the community and the memories residents made there. Now in his 60s, Testa said he recalled fondly taking swimming lessons at the pool when he was 4. He said the current proposal was ideal, to enhance the space as a recreational area to draw in many more residents throughout the year, similar to what Marrone proposed. 

“You can host concerts, picnics, there were plans for an open amphitheater area. It should be much more than a pool, it's a recreation facility that will have a pool, will have a splash pad or two, but we'll also have features to it that could be used almost year round,” Testa said. “And I just think that if you try to put a dollar value on it, that's hard to do because then you have to start putting a dollar value on everything we do.”

Whatever comes of the property in the near future, however, the void left in its absence over the past four years has been one that is felt by residents - who feel that it is one of the attractive features of town that has been missing since its closure. 

Resident Christine Reynolds, who moved to Wallingford 23 years ago, said one of the major draws to the area for her had been the pool, the library, and the town’s proximity to New Haven. She noted the pool was an invaluable resource for her family, and hoped its restoration would return those opportunities to other families moving to the area. 

“The potential draw of young families to settle here, the building and strengthening of our community bonds and having safe and fun local options for kids are all positives for our town,” Reynolds said.

Resident Danielle Murphy said the pool was one of the benefits to moving into the community.

“We heard such great things about the community pool," Murphy said. "How teachers would enjoy their summers reading, friends meeting up to cool off, and a location for people to give swim lessons. Instead we were never able to experience this joy. Now I drive by it all summer long to drop my kids off at YMCA camp, and I am dismayed, saddened and outraged at the pool sitting there rotting.”

Others felt that the town’s dedication to fiscal conservatism has led to a lack of services or built-out community centers to draw business to the town center and ultimately led to the pool’s extended closure in 2020. 

“As a Wallingford homeowner I don’t see it, surrounding towns have mill rates within a few points but also many services,” said resident Bennett Prescott. “What's the point in saving so much money that our town is nothing but streets and businesses with no vital taxpayer supported center to draw spending?”

Town officials said progress is being made and there is a commitment from leadership to see the project finished within the near future, hoping to offer some assurances to those who feel as if the project is dead in the water.

“It seems like it'll never happen when you talk about it on social media, you see a lot of sarcasm and a lot of frustration and a lot of strong feelings one way or the other," Testa said. "But it is moving forward. We’ve just have to take it one step at a time. It's not dead."

Town Planner Defends Westbrook Outlets Redevelopment Amid Resident Concerns

Francisco Uranga

WESTBROOK — The Westbrook Outlets redevelopment project is moving forward, and that’s good news in the eyes of town planner Peter Gillespie.

“It’s the single largest tax base generator in the community, so it’s a large economic development property for us,” Gillespie said Thursday. “We do not have a lot of economic development opportunities.”  

In July, the Zoning Commission approved the developer’s requests, permitting five-story buildings instead of the previous four-story limit, increasing the allowable building floor area, and reducing the required number of parking spaces.

However, residents were divided over the new building height limits and other proposed features.

During a public information meeting held a few days before the zoning decision, developer Lexington Partners and property owner Inovalis pitched the benefits of the project to the community. Several residents responded with criticism and raised concerns about the potential impact.

Despite the critics, Gillespie said, the project had community support.

“It’s hard to say just by a meeting like that what the support or opposition is. Usually at those meetings, there are plenty of people who come out and raise concerns,” he said. “But I would think there’s more support than opposition because people realize that something has to happen at the outlets. It’s not sustainable as it presently exists.”

The developers plan to demolish all current buildings on the property. An earlier design version considered preserving the cinema.

“There were lots of community comments about saving this theater, but movie theaters are facing difficult challenges. People don’t go to the movies like they once did,” Gillespie said. “It is going to start with a clean slate. None of the buildings are being incorporated into the project.”

The project includes building 596 apartments, 100 townhouses, 76,000 square feet of restaurants and entertainment venues, and a 100-room hotel. It will also feature 14,400 square meters of facilities, including a clubhouse, outdoor pool, fitness room and rooftop decks.

Gillespie said the town’s plan of conservation and development for 2021-2031 identified the Westbrook Outlets as an issue to be resolved, as well as the need to increase housing stock.

The project’s scale raised concerns among Westbrook residents, as the new apartments could potentially increase the town’s population by up to 20% in a community of 7,000, assuming two occupants per unit.

Others were concerned about a change in the character of the community, the impact on services like schools and nurseries, and possible tax increases. 

Gillespie said the city would hire consultants to assess these issues, but denied that the redevelopment would result in higher taxes.

“I don’t know what logic people would use to think it would increase their taxes,” he said said. “I don’t think the services that are going to be necessary to support this project would outweigh the benefits.”

According to the consulting firm Goman and York, hired by the developers, the project would generate an additional $3 million annually in tax revenues while expenses would rise by $1.3 million, yielding a net positive for the town.

The firm also estimated that the new residents would generate an additional $4.7 million in local consumer spending, while the hotel would add about $5.6 million to tourism spending.

Regarding the character of the town, Gillespie said because the property was in a relatively isolated area between Interstate 95 and the railroad tracks, any effect could be mitigated.   

The project also calls for a large septic system, which still needs to be approved by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The project would then return to the town to continue the legal process and several public hearings. The state Department of Transportation would also evaluate the project’s impact on traffic.

According to Gillespie, the developers plan to start construction by the middle of next year if approvals proceed as expected. He added that the project would take a couple of years to complete, but did not specify a timeline