State Has Plans For I-84 Widening And Exit Improvements

By Andrew Gorosko

State Department of Transportation (DOT) traffic planners this week described their ideas on making long-term improvements to Interstate-84 between the Housatonic River and the New York State line to enhance traffic flow and improve travel safety.

DOT February 14 displayed conceptual plans for improving each of the 11 traffic interchanges, which extend along the 18.8-mile length of highway. The agency presented long-term construction alternatives for rebuilding the interchanges, as well as some short-term plans to improve conditions.

Besides improving interchanges, DOT traffic planners propose adding one more travel lane to each side of the highway to improve traffic flow.

Traffic planners stressed the project is in the conceptual stage and the various road improvements which they suggest are years away. How far in the future such changes would be made remains unclear, said Francis Zapatka, a DOT supervising traffic planner. The proposed work may be done sometime between 2005 and 2020, he said. Improving I-84 in western Connecticut is a project which must compete for government funding with other road improvement projects throughout the state, he said.

The goal of the $750,000 highway planning project now underway is to establish a list of priorities on which I-84 improvements are needed in western Connecticut, he said. It is yet unclear which of the various improvements proposed for I-84 in the region will take top priority, he said.

Ruth Bonsignore, a traffic consultant to DOT, outlined current thinking on I-84 improvements to the approximately 25 people who attended the DOT informational session at Newtown High School. Traffic planners will make specific recommendations on which improvements should be made at interchanges, plus road widening recommendations, in several months, she said. The study also addresses how traffic flow between the I-84 interchanges and nearby major local roads can be improved.

Newtown Interchanges

The Exit 9 interchange in Hawleyville has geometric deficiencies which need to be corrected, Ms Bonsignore said. The layout of the on-ramps and off-ramps, especially for the westbound lanes, is not what would be designed today for current traffic volumes, she said. Traffic planners are considering various reconfigurations of the interchange which would make for safer, more efficient traffic flow, she said. Improvements may include installing traffic signals on the nearby Hawleyville Road to control traffic flow at the ends of interchange ramps.

The Exit 10 interchange and the adjacent Church Hill Road is a high-accident area, Ms Bonsignore said. By today’s highway design standards, the Exit 10 on-ramps and off-ramps are deficient, she said. Traffic planners are considering “softening” the geometry of the ramps to provide better vehicle acceleration and braking in the area, as well as adding some traffic signals in the area, she said.

The Exit 11 interchange was constructed as a link between I-84 and a Route 25 expressway, Ms Bonsignore said. The Route 25 expressway, however, was never built. Traffic planners propose simplifying the sweeping Exit 11 interchange to improve area traffic flow, she said. Redesign proposals focus on reducing traffic congestion on nearby roads.

Jonathan Chew, executive director of the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO), said he expects that eventually all 11 interchanges will be improved and the highway will be widened.

The other highway gateway into Connecticut, Interstate-95, cannot be widened, so it makes sense to widen I-84, he said. Widening I-95 is a politically unpopular expansion project, Mr Chew said.

“I-95 is at capacity. I-84 can be expanded,” he said.

“You can widen this road [I-84] by another 50 percent by using land in the median,” Mr Chew said. “Something will happen in 10 years, because there’s a big state interest in this,” he said.

Newtown must establish a list of I-84 improvement priorities as the highway improvement planning process proceeds, Mr Chew said. “It’s still fluid,” he said.

Unless the town establishes some priorities, nothing will happen, or the state will make whatever highway changes it wants, he said.

 

First Selectman

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said Exit 11 is the interchange where the town experiences the most traffic problems, especially during morning and afternoon rush periods. The town is seeking to have the state take short-term measures to improve traffic flow there before rebuilding the interchange as a long-term solution, he said.

The Exit 10 area poses many traffic safety issues due to longstanding congestion problems there, he said. The Exit 10 area and nearby Church Hill Road has the highest accident rate in the ten-town HVCEO region.

The first selectman pointed out that improving the Exit 9 interchange is important because it would serve as the gateway to the economic development which the town envisions for Hawleyville.

Mr Rosenthal serves on an advisory panel that is monitoring  DOT’s study of improving I-84.

 Whatever work is eventually done to improve I-84 and its interchanges in western Connecticut will be costly. Mr Zapatka estimates that adding one travel lane to the highway in each direction between Exit 4 in Danbury and Exit 11 in Sandy Hook would cost about $170 million.