CT's plan to improve Route 7 & Merritt interchange in Norwalk sparks safety, connectivity concerns

Katherine Lutge

NORWALK — Community members are skeptical of the state's latest plans to improve the Route 7 and Merritt Parkway interchange, citing concerns about pedestrian safety and the risk of collisions. 

A public hearing on the proposal drew the spotlight onto the Norwalk River Valley Trail and the effect the changes could have on the multiuse trail, which is one day meant to connect to Danbury. 

"The NRVT will one day make up the backbone of the whole region’s bike network, but a chain is only as strong as its weakest link," emphasized resident Ben Hanpeter, who commutes daily from Norwalk to Wilton on his bike. 

Local residents congregated at City Hall on Wednesday evening to gain insight and voice their opinions regarding the latest alternative for the Route 7 and Merritt Parkway, also known as Route 15, interchange. 

Originating in the 1990s, Route 7's connection to the Merritt was unidirectional, facilitating travel only toward the south. Currently, motorists heading south on the Merritt cannot directly access southbound or northbound Route 7. Similarly, those traveling on Route 7 in either direction lack access to the northbound Merritt. 

Project leaders unveiled two alternative solutions at the meeting, each aimed at enhancing connections, safety, and traffic flow among Route 7, Merritt Parkway, and Main Avenue. 

Concerns were voiced by Hanpeter and other biking and pedestrian advocates regarding the impact of current interchange plans on the future of the NRVT. The trail's intended passage beneath the Merritt Parkway using the Perry Street tunnel was criticized as unsafe and narrow. 

The majority of feedback advocated for expanding the scope of the interchange project to incorporate the NRVT. Residents highlighted its value not just for recreation but also as a commuting resource. With office complexes along Main Avenue in Norwalk and Wilton, locals such as Hanpeter use the trail for their daily bike commutes. 

“We’re putting our jobs on a road that is pretty narrow, and it’s already pretty congested, means that it just speaks to the need for the vision of a greater vision for non-car infrastructure for walking and biking and public transportation,” said Tanner Thompson, chair of Norwalk’s Bike/Walk Commission and a member of the Sustainable Street Norwalk community group. 

The endeavor to finalize the Route 7 and Merritt interchange began in 2016. Since then, the NRVT plans have progressed alongside the trail's increasing popularity. 

“The federal government transportation just awarded a four and a half million dollar grant for planning and design for the entire rest of the trail, so it is much bigger deal it was in in 2016,” noted Thompson. 

Adding traffic signals to Route 7? 

During the presentation segment of the meeting, John Eberle, a project manager from Stantec Consulting, outlined the alarming frequency of accidents at the project site. 

"The sheer volume of crashes history in these two inner interchanges is pretty startling... over 300 crashes in a half-mile segment," Eberle stated. 

Eberle detailed the two alternatives, with Alternative 26 emerging as the favored model due to its smaller footprint and lower cost. Alternative 26 involves introducing two traffic signals on Route 7, a proposition met with concerns from residents who believe it could alter the expressway's character. 

“Traffic signals will create further backups which already exist at the am and pm rush hours.” said resident Joanne Horvath. "By adding traffic signals on the Route 7 expressway, I think that too many rear-end collisions would result." 

Suggestions for roundabouts were proposed by other residents as an alternative to signals. 

“I think the point was made about stoplights is a valid one, and I would love to see whether in the past or in the future roundabouts happen or could be considered in place of those stoplights because they have a much better safety record but still move a comparable amount of traffic in a lot of cases,” Thompson said. 

The interchange is near the end of Route 7, which ends on Grist Mill Road. While originally planned to be an expressway between Norwalk and Danbury, Route 7 expansion was stopped to the frustration of some Norwalk residents.

“I never wanted the road, but if it was going then it should have gone to go through Wilton, through Richfield and finish the road,” said resident Lucia Molinelli. “I have a husband who leaves at six o’clock in the morning just to go to Danbury because the traffic is so horrendous.”

The other option, Alternative 21D, provides free-flowing ramps but has a large foot print and cost twice as much at Alternative 26. According to projections, Alternative 26 is expected to cost $140 to $160 million and Alternative 21D would cost $240 to $260 million.

With a larger footprint, Alternative 21D has 14 bridges and five river crossing compared to Alternative 26's seven bridges and three river crossings. 

 “We strongly support Alternative 26,” said Wes Haynes the executive director of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy. “The compact interchange between the 7 and the Merritt is clearly preferable to the much larger 21 D in terms of conserving natural features wetlands, wildlife habitat, and minimizing impervious cover with the watershed.” 

Merritt Parkway Conservancy challenged prior attempts for the interchange and in 2006 successfully stopped construction with a lawsuit. 

The upcoming steps for the project involve incorporating comments into the design process, as highlighted by Eberle, who emphasized that additional public hearings will follow. 

“This isn’t the last public outreach session,” Eberle said. “It doesn’t go from here underground and then it comes up in three years being constructed. We’ve got a lot of outreach to do.” 

EPA plans $11.2M Raymark waste cleanup near Shakespeare Theater, boat club property in Stratford

STRATFORD — The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to dig up hundreds of truckloads of toxic waste buried along Shore Road as part of a new remediation project that is expected to take up to two years to complete. 

Officials estimate that the defunct Raymark Industries dumped about 9,500 cubic yards of polluted soil in a waterfront area largely centered around the Housatonic Boat Club and a small part of the nearby Shakespeare Theater property, according to a report released this month.  

The agency is now seeking public comments on a newly announced $11.2 million plan to remove the soil, which is contaminated with potentially cancer-causing agents and other dangerous chemicals such as lead and asbestos. 

The proposed cleanup effort calls for crews to remove around three feet of soil at the shoreline of the 4-acre site, including the boat club parking lot and grassy areas, and two feet of soil on the eastern edge of the Shakespeare property.  

The excavated areas will then be covered with about four feet of clean soil to prevent any potentially remaining waste from emerging from the ground, a task that will also raise the shoreline by about a foot in elevation and help bolster coastal resiliency measures. 

“EPA's preferred alternative for the remedy, detailed in the proposed plan, will protect human health and the environment by preventing potential exposure to contamination,” Mikayla Rumph, an agency spokesperson, said in a statement.  

The project, which is expected to start in late 2024, is part of a larger yearslong effort to rid the town of exposed Raymark waste. As of July, the EPA has spent $64 million to remove about 62,000 cubic yards of waste from nearly two dozen private and town-owned properties where the material was dumped or used for fill decades ago.   

Crews are now clearing toxic soil from the badly-polluted Ferry Creek — an intensive project that required workers to drain much of the waterway. The excavation work began in late June and is anticipated to continue into late October or November, according to Jim DiLorenzo, an environmental engineer. 

The yet-to-be-approved work along Shore Road will likely need to take place before the town moves ahead with plans to revamp the Shakespeare property, a publicly owned waterfront site that was previously home to a 1,500-seat theater that sat vacant for years before arsonists burned the building to the ground in 2019.

Mayor Laura Hoydick has proposed replacing the destroyed venue with a 500-seat black box theater, music pavilion and food truck park as part of an estimated $11.5 million redevelopment plan. The Town Council has already set aside $3 million to overhaul the property, but the panel has not yet decided what should replace the theater.  

The report detailing the proposed cleanup suggests the project will require a significant amount of construction work that could disrupt the area. In addition to removing nearly 10,000 cubic yards of waste, crews will also be transporting about 18,000 cubic yards of clean soil to the site, requiring an estimated 2,300 total truck trips. 

“EPA recognizes that there will be quality of life impacts that property owners, abutters and the general Stratford community will endure during the active cleanup,” officials wrote in the report. “However, these cleanup actions are necessary to protect the health and well-being of the Stratford community. 

After the remediation work is complete, the EPA plans to review the site at least once every five years to confirm the harmful toxins are no longer exposed above the ground. The organization also plans to place fencing and signs warning against unauthorized digging. 

The agency is currently accepting public comments on the proposed cleanup plan through Sep. 8. Residents can also submit comments during a formal public hearing scheduled for Sept. 6 at the EPA office at 300 Ferry Boulevard. The event will also be streamed online.   

Housing Authority To Buy Clock Shop For $4.5M

The city’s public housing authority plans to purchase the New Haven Clock Company building on Hamilton Street and convert it into 100 mixed-income, mostly-affordable apartments — but only after the abandoned factory’s current owners rid the property of all remaining toxins.

The Housing Authority of New Haven’s Board of Commissioners authorized the public housing agency to purchase the storied and long-vacant clock factory for $4.5 million during its monthly meeting on Tuesday in a 360 Orange St. conference room.

The factory building’s owner, an LLC affiliate of the Oregon-based developer Reed Community Partners, has been slated to lose the historic property in a foreclosure sale, after failing to pay over $235,000 in city taxes. The company has until Dec. 16 to sell the property ahead of a scheduled auction.

For years, Reed Community Partners had hoped to transform the factory into 130 affordable housing units, including some set aside for artists. A series of financial and structural twists thwarted this plan. In addition to accruing substantial tax debt, the city cited the owners multiple times for unsafe and unsightly conditions — including a collapsing wall, falling bricks, leaking oil drums, debris, and blight. The current owners also spent several months in court in 2018 and 2019 trying to evict the building’s last remaining tenant, a strip club. (Reed Community Partners did not respond to requests for comment for this article.)

Karen DuBois-Walton, the president of the Housing Authority and its affiliated nonprofits (collectively known as Elm City Communities), said that the Housing Authority of New Haven will initially purchase the building, while its nonprofit arm 360 Management will likely acquire and run the new apartments. 

The Housing Authority has agreed to purchase the building on the condition that Reed Community Partners complete remediation of the site beforehand, according to Elm City Communities Vice President Shenae Draughn.

“We are extremely excited about this opportunity,” Draughn told commissioners on Tuesday.

Commissioner Erik Clemons praised the planned acquisition. “It’s a great idea,” he said. “That property’s been sitting there. Well done.”

The sale authorization received unanimous approval from commissioners.

“I love the reuse of an old building,” DuBois-Walton said after the meeting. “There’s character. It’s such a meaningful place in New Haven.”

The building is simultaneously an emblem of the industrial economy that once powered New Haven and the underground arts culture that thrived in the 90s, as Jason Bischoff-Wurstle documented in a recent New Haven Museum exhibit.

In its life as a factory from the mid-19th to mid-20th century, the building was a work site for over 1,500 people making clocks for the New Haven Clock Company. 

By the 1970s, the factory had closed and the artists had moved in. Creatives including a group of mimes and an artist-activist collective worked and in some cases even lived in the industrial buildings. The former factory housed a punk and R&B cafe, an LGBTQ+ club, a skate park, a “Sex Ball” for New England architecture students, and a strip club.

Now, DuBois-Walton and her colleagues envision the building’s next life as an affordable housing hub — an extension of a long-brewing vision for the Mill River neighborhood’s industrial remnants.

DuBois-Walton noted that old clock factory is located steps away from Mill River Crossing, a set of recently-renovated, mostly-below-market apartments built by an Elm City Communities nonprofit. The building, formerly known as Farnam Courts, used to be a public housing complex known for its deteriorating conditions. 

She added that the factory purchase would add about 100 apartments, mostly rented below the market rate, to New Haven’s housing stock — which she said would help address the city’s affordability crisis, as Elm City Communities recently distilled in its “Breaking Ground” policy report.

Elm City Communities is currently crunching the numbers as to how many of the proposed 100 units at the clock shop would be “affordable,” and what exactly “affordable” will mean. (In the latest addition to Mill River Crossing, about 84 percent of units were rented below-market rate, primarily to families making 25, 50, and 60 percent of the Area Median Income.)

Though the building will include some market-rate units, DuBois-Walton said, “it will be mostly affordable, ’cause that’s what we do.”

ARTBA Reports 222,000 U.S. Bridges Need Repair

More than 222,000 U.S. bridges need major repair work or should be replaced, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association's (ARTBA) analysis of the recently released U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) 2023 National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database.

That figure represents 36 percent of all U.S. structures.

If placed end-to-end, these bridges would stretch more than 6,100 mi. and take over 110 hours to cross at an average speed of 55-miles-per-hour, according to ARTBA Chief Economist Alison Premo Black, who conducted the analysis. Based on average cost data submitted by states to U.S. DOT, Black calculates it would cost more than $319 billion to make all needed repairs.

States currently have access to $10.6 billion from the 2021 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's (IIJA) bridge formula funds that could help make needed repairs, with another $15.9 billion to be available in the next three years.

As the end of FY 2023 approaches on Sept. 30, states have committed $3.2 billion, or 30 percent of available bridge formula funds to 2,060 different bridge projects, with $7.4 billion still coming.

Eight states committed more than two-thirds of their available bridge formula funds: Idaho (100 percent), Georgia (100 percent), Alabama (97 percent), Arizona (88 percent), Indiana (81.5 percent), Florida (80 percent), Texas (78 percent) and Arkansas (68 percent).

"The good news is that states are beginning to employ these new resources to address long-overdue bridge needs," ARTBA President and CEO Dave Bauer said. "The better news is that more improvements are on the way."

"Most bridges are inspected every two years, so it takes time for repairs and rehabilitation efforts to show up in the annual federal data," said Black. "What we do know now from other market indicators is that there are more bridge projects in the pipeline."

Among other findings in ARTBA's analysis:

The number of bridges in poor condition declined by 560 compared to 2022. At the current pace, it would take 75 years to repair them all.

Over the last five years, the share of bridges in fair condition continues to grow. In 2023, nearly half of all U.S. bridges (48.9 percent) were in fair condition.

There are 31 states that have committed less than 33 percent of their available bridge formula funds as of June 30.

States have four years to commit formula bridge program funds for specific projects, giving them additional flexibility to decide when to make investments.

The full findings, including state-by-state rankings, are available at: www.artbabridgereport.org.