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CT Construction Digest Monday September 23, 2024

New London flood prevention plan envisions ‘linear park’ along waterfront

John Penney

New London – An ambitious $16.5 million flood mitigation proposal for South Water Street calls for a combination of new flood walls and road-raising, along with design elements to make the downtown waterfront area more attractive and functional.

The plan, which requires several steps before it can be approved or funded, focuses on a 1,300-foot stretch of South Water Street, just below Bank Street and a few feet away from railroad tracks.

Felix Reyes, the city’s director of planning and economic development, said the road, where the rear sides of several Bank Street properties are located, has the tendency to collect floodwater after heavy rains.

One solution, floated by the Fuss & O’Neill civil and environmental engineering firm to the City Council’s Economic Development Committee earlier this month, proposes building flood walls between 3 and 6 feet near the Amtrak rail lines.

The firm said the walls would be sturdy enough to withstand coastal flooding events up to a 100-year flood, which the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, predicts have a 1% chance of occurring each year.

The wall construction would likely coincide with raising sections of South Water Street by up to 2½ feet to make the undulating road a uniform height, said Akta Patel, an engineer with Fuss & O’Neill.

Patel said a recent University of Connecticut flood analysis anticipated a 20-inch rise in sea levels by 2050, which could lead to flooding in the common areas of South Water Street.

“That’s already happening in some areas with flooding into basements and some property owners building flood walls,” she said. “And it’s only going to get worse as sea levels rise.”

Ian Law, a Fuss & O’Neill associate, said he envisions a series of beautification improvements to the South Water Street area to be added in conjunction with the mitigation work.

Those additions could include transforming a nearby alley connecting Bank Street into a pedestrian staircase; creating tree-filled plazas; adding stadium-style seating; and laying cobblestone pavers.

Law said existing business delivery paths would remain during the creation of the “linear park.”

The project would require the cooperation of nearby property owners and Amtrak officials. Law said his firm met with several property owners in the spring and will do so again.

The project cost was broken down into three segments: $160,000 for tree planting; $1.6 million for drainage; and $14.7 million for road elevation, flood wall and amenity work.

Law and Patel said the cost of the project could be covered through a combination of FEMA and state Department of Economic Development grants.

Reyes said another meeting will be held with property owners ahead of grant application preparation.

“This is not just about South Water Street,” Reyes said. “We have multiple development projects happening on Bank and State streets, as well as other parts of the city. And they all tie into each other. If you have flooding on South Water, it affects them all.”


West Hartford moving forward with $6 million overhaul of New Park Avenue, including separated bike lanes

Michael Walsh

WEST HARTFORD — Town officials this week revealed their plans to reconstruct part of New Park Avenue, with designs calling for what would be the town's first-ever separated bike lanes.

Up until now, bike lanes in West Hartford have only ever been painted lines on the roadway. But the town's new $6 million plans to overhaul a stretch of New Park Avenue will provide cyclists with a safer mode of transportation through a two-way separated bike lane buffered by concrete curbing.

It's part of West Hartford's plans to improve safety on the busy roadway, which has seen an increase of both residential and commercial development over the past few years. Housing has already been built along the corridor with two more projects planned that will bring hundreds of new residents to the area.

Plans also call for a partial road diet, bringing travel lanes down from four to two with traffic sharing a center left turn line, just like the road diet implemented on North Main Street. The project will also create a raised platform bus stop with enhanced crosswalks that will shorten the distance pedestrians have to travel to cross the roadway.

"There’s some new development along here as well, so it’s a busy area in terms of roadway and traffic volumes," said Joe Balskus of VHB, the consultant working with the town on the project, at a public meeting held on Tuesday. "We know bike lanes are safest when they’re separated. We’re doing a road diet and at the same time we’re enhancing the pedestrian crossings for those who use the bus."

That road diet would lessen closer to the Home Depot plaza, Balskus said, adding that pedestrian crossing distances will be shortened along the corridor. Crosswalks would overall be enhanced for safety, Balskus said. 

"The whole thing about pedestrians and crossing is exposure," he said. "How much is that pedestrian exposed crossing the roadway? With the road diet... you have a refuge island. Your exposure is minimized."

Much focus during the meeting was given to how cyclists will traverse the roadway in the future. Balskus and Dan Amstutz, a senior transportation planner with VHB, outlined how the separated bike lane on the western side of the roadway — beginning where New Britain Avenue meets New Park Avenue — will work.

The nine foot wide travel lane will stretch to Talcott Road, at which point cyclists would then enter a 10 foot wide off road multi-use path that cyclists would share with pedestrians. That path would stretch to Oakwood Avenue. In the past, the town has said they could look at extending that path to Flatbush Avenue, but that would be a completely separate project.

"It really creates that dedicated space for people to bicycle along the roadway which currently doesn’t exist," Amstutz said. "It creates much greater separation away from the traffic."

Amstutz said the separated bike lanes should appeal to a wider range of cyclists.

"It eliminates some of the risk and fear of colliding with vehicles," he said. "It gives the less experienced bicyclist a place where they can be not right in the middle of traffic. If that makes it more attractive to a wider range of people who want to bicycle, it will hopefully get more people out to bicycle and use this to get to locations along the roadway."

The project will be funded by $3.7 million in state funding, while the remaining $2.3 million will be funded by the town itself. Plans should go out to bid soon with construction starting in the spring of 2025.


As road work continues in Middletown, find out what streets are slated for completion

Cassandra Day

MIDDLETOWN — With a goal of repairing some 10 miles of local street surfaces by the end of the year, crews will be paving, milling, patching and conducting other preservation efforts through the fall.

Current projects include Ridgewood Road, which will be finished by Monday, according to acting Middletown Public Works Director Howard Weissberg. 

Final work on Smith Street, between Middle Street and the I-91 bridge over Smith, which began last year, is expected to be complete by Tuesday, he said Friday.

Next up will be curbing and more preservation work on the south side of town, in the Chauncy and Chamberlain roads neighborhood, by October, weather permitting, Weissberg said.

Paving is “sorely needed” in these areas, he explained.

Work on Rose Circle and Stoneycrest Drive, off Newfield Street (Route 3), both of which contain several apartment complexes, is underway.

Completed already are Northview Drive, Oak Ridge Drive and Plumb Road, Acacia Drive, Basswood Drive, Congdon Street, Lee Street, Paddock Road, Mile Lane, and the Wesleyan Hills area.

Construction typically begins in late spring. "We hit the ground running in May,” the director explained.

The department is using some techniques that haven’t been used in Middletown in the past to ensure longevity.

“That will allow us to get more miles treated,” he said. 

“Fall is typically when everything starts happening," Weissberg said. 

State Local Capital Improvement Program funding, as well as city road bonds, are paying for the work, he said.

For the next couple of weeks, the state Department of Transportation will mill and surface a nearly 3-mile segment of  Washington Street (Route 66), as well as St. John Square leading to Route 9, according to the agency.

Project completion is estimated for Sept. 30.

Similar construction will be performed on Route 17 from Randolph Road (Route 155) to Loveland Street, through Oct. 8.

Also, water main replacement on Court Street between Main and Broad streets will take place through October.

The director, who asks for the public’s patience during the process, acknowledged traffic delays and other issues will be a “challenge” for motorists.