New exit off I-91 north in Hartford to Charter Oak Bridge will eliminate one of Connecticut’s worst highway bottlenecks

Kenneth R. Gosselin

HARTFORD — A notorious bottleneck on I-91 north in Hartford that has infuriated motorists for decades will get some long-sought relief Wednesday as a new exit to the Charter Oak Bridge and I-84 east is opened to its first travelers.

The first of two lanes will open shortly after midnight to commuters, leisure travelers and operators of 18-wheelers. The ramp, including a 900-foot section of bridge, is the centerpiece of a $240 million state transportation highway project, the largest in three decades in the Hartford area.

The new exit 29 will replace an ill-conceived, right-hand exit nearby with the same name where traffic routinely backs up for a mile or more. The DOT estimates that 67,000 vehicles pass through the area each day.

“There’s been a longstanding problem with traffic on I-91 northbound, mostly driven by that ramp,” Mark Rolfe, deputy DOT commissioner, said. “You have a single-lane ramp, very steep and all it takes is one truck going a little slowly, and it’s causing congestion and backups.”

The new exit won’t be nearly as steep. Drivers will be allowed to queue up for the exit for two miles rather than the few hundred yards for the existing ramp.

“The biggest thing is that it will keep the traffic flowing, that back up here is awful,” Juan Ruiz, a DOT project engineer, said this week during a tour of the new ramp. “People don’t want to stay in line. They want to cut in front of everybody, and they slam on their brakes. I’ve seen it too many times from the bridge and guess what happens? Bam!”

Between Jan. 1, 2018 and April 30 — the latest statistics available — there were 372 crashes with 85 injuries, according to the DOT.

The new exit also will place travelers in the lanes to connect with I-84 east. The old ramp forced drivers to weave across lanes on the Charter Oak Bridge to make that connection.

The DOT already has started to prepare drivers for the opening of the new ramp with electronic messages on I-91 in Wethersfield. Ceremonies marking the opening are planned for Tuesday morning.

The bottleneck around the Charter Oak Bridge is not only infamous locally, but has drawn national attention. More than once, the area landed on an annual list of the 100 worst bottlenecks in the country for truck freight and seen as an impediment to economic growth in the state.

“The other benefits go to quality of life,” Rolfe said. “When people are sitting in traffic, they are not home with their families, they are not watching their kids’ soccer games.”

The new exit is part of a $240 million project that stretches 3.5-miles from Wethersfield north to East Hartford that is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2022. The project went into design in 2015 under former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and began construction in 2019.

A second lane on the new exit ramp is expected to open next year when widening projects in East Hartford are completed, including two bridges. The widening is needed to accommodate the traffic from the new exit that merges with motorists on Routes 5 and 15.

The price tag rose from an initial estimate of $213 million after additional improvements were needed, including structural steel strengthening on the Charter Oak Bridge. The financing includes $195 million in state funding and another $45 million in federal dollars.

Rolfe said the DOT sees the traffic problems at the Charter Oak Bridge as among the top five or six worst ones in the state. Some congestion “choke points” around the state — the 1-91/I-95 interchange and Q Bridge in New Haven and I-84 in Waterbury — have already been tackled, and more are on the way, Rolfe said.

“Our budget simply doesn’t allow us to add, say, a lane through an entire corridor -- 95 between New York and New Haven — it’s simply not in the cards,” Rolfe said. “We’re looking at more of these targeted, strategic investments where we can open up some of these choke points.”

The state has studies underway in Danbury, and at the “mixmaster” in Waterbury. The DOT also is conducting the Greater Hartford Mobility Study to address the congested I-84/1-91 interchange in Hartford and how to lessen the geographic divisions, including how I-91 cuts the city off from its riverfront, that resulted from highway construction in the 1960s and 1970s.

In Meriden, Rolfe said he expects the first in a series of improvements to begin next year to address backups at the I-91/691 interchange.

The state also is watching closely how the debate over President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal is unfolding and is working with the state’s Congressional delegation.

“At this point, there’s a great deal of unknown about it,” Rolfe said. “But yeah, if there is significantly more federal dollars coming our way then we can start to look at developing more of these larger projects, accelerating ones that are already in the pipeline and moving things along more quickly.”

Proponents of mass transit and other forms of getting around say that for highway improvement projects to succeed long-term, however, there needs to be fewer cars and other transportation options.

In Hartford, the backups on I-91 northbound have existed ever since the new, wider Charter Oak Bridge opened in 1991.

The thought behind connecting I-91 North to Routes 5 and 15 and, ultimately, I-84 east via the new Charter Oak Bridge was to ease congestion closer to downtown Hartford on the Founders and Bulkeley bridges caused by drivers trying to make the same connection.

But a new bottleneck was created almost from the beginning with one-lane exit from I-91. Ruiz said the exit close simultaneously with the opening of the new ramp and it will soon be dismantled.

“That’s 30 years we’ve had to live with this,” said Donald L. Ward, district manager at the DOT, “and now, on May 26, we’ll be done

Winsted's Hinsdale project 'will serve students well into the future'

Emily M. Olson

WINSTED — A row of shiny shovels were lined up in the dirt on the grounds of the Mary P. Hinsdale School Thursday.

Superintendent of Schools Melony Brady-Shanely was joined by members of the Hinsdale School Renovation Committee, school administrators, Board of Education members and a few interested residents at the event, where the shovels would be used to break ground for the renovation project.

“This building helps us take our next step for the education of our children in Winsted,” Brady-Shanley said. “It will serve students well into the future.”

Architectural firm Silver Petrucilli & Associates is designing the project, while Montagno Construction has been hired to rebuild the school. Both companies were represented at Thursday’s groundbreaking.

The Hinsdale building, was closed a few years ago at the behest of a then-state appointed receiver overseeing school operations in Winsted. The following year, after the receiver left the school district, school officials decided they wanted to renovate and reopen the school.

Hinsdale is getting a complete renovation to serve students in first through third grades. Renovated classrooms, a gym and cafeteria, a media center and refurbished administrative offices are part of the project. A two-story building attached to the Williams Avenue side of the school will be torn down and replaced with 7,700 square feet of classroom space.

The total cost of the project is $16.8 million, of which $6.9 million would be paid for through a state grant. While the reimbursable part of the project is listed as $9.9 million, the 70 percent reimbursable rate brings it to $6.9 million. Voters approved the plan in 2019.

Renovation committee member Tony Sandonato said the project was a lot of hard work, thanks to the current and past committee members.

“The committee was created with local representation, from many areas of our community,” Sandonato said. “Melony has been a big part of this, and we thank the Board of Selectmen and Mayor Candy Perez, who have been very helpful in making this happen. We’d also be remiss if we didn’t thank our former town manager, Bob Geiger, for his support.

“We have made a critical investment in our children’s future, and in our economic development,” he said.

The project received site plan approval from the Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands commissions in 2020. Work is expected to begin this summer.

Amazon official: Construction site in Windsor shut down temporarily

Leah Brennan

WINDSOR — Amazon has ordered a Windsor construction site shut down “to make sure that the necessary safety measures can be put in place,” an Amazon representative said Thursday at an NAACP news conference.

During the news conference, which was streamed by FOX61, Scot X Esdaile — a Connecticut NAACP official — said multiple nooses had been found at the site.

“The NAACP has met with many individuals in this community — individuals in law enforcement, individuals from the town, individuals from the community, town council, state reps, and we still haven’t felt that the situation has been dealt with adequately,” said Esdaile, adding the organization has been disappointed by conversations with Amazon.

Amazon representative Brad Griggs said at the conference that the company “continue[s] to be deeply distrubed by the incidents at this construction site” and that it would be shut down while needed safety measures are instituted.

“Hate, racism and discrmination have no place in our society and certainly are not tolerated in any Amazon workplace, whether under construction like the building here behind us or in our fully operational facilities,” Griggs said.

Griggs said Amazon is working with the town, local and state police and the FBI to hold those responsible accountable.

An overall $100,000 reward has been offered — from Amazon and its “development partners” — “to help find the perpetrators” involved, Griggs said.

Berlin moves closer to building affordable senior housing on Percival Avenue

Erica Drzewiecki

BERLIN – The town is a little bit closer to building the long-awaited affordable senior housing at 143 Percival Ave. following an action taken by elected officials this week.