Date: Fri 20-Jun-1997
Date: Fri 20-Jun-1997
Publication: Bee
Author: ANDYG
Quick Words:
bypass-road-Fairfield-Hills
Full Text:
Work Begins On Fairfield Hills Bypass Road
(with cuts)
Workmen have started preliminary construction on the long-awaited Fairfield
Hills bypass road, an east-west connector planned to link Route 25 to Exit 11
of Interstate 84, and to Route 34.
Workers this week cleared a broad swath from a stand of trees near Mile Hill
Road in preparation for bypass road construction.
The overall cost of the project is estimated at $4 million, including
construction and design costs. The low bidder for the project is Dayton
Construction Company, Inc, of Watertown, which will do construction work for
$3.2 million.
The bypass road is intended to alleviate traffic congestion in the town
center. The project is planned for completion by the end of 1998.
Advanced erosion control measures will be used during bypass road
construction. Special contamination traps will be installed because the area
lies above the Pootatuck Aquifer. The bypass road project is environmentally
significant because it is unusual to build a major connector road in a place
containing an area's designated sole source aquifer.
A new bridge to cross the Pootatuck River will be built in stages, requiring
the need for a temporary traffic signal to regulate alternating one-way
traffic flow.
A combination of state and federal funds will cover project costs. The new
road will bypass the core campus of Fairfield Hills. The road will link the
intersection of Mile Hill Road South and Mile Hill Road to the area where Mile
Hill Road intersects with Oakview Road.
A 1991 agreement, which resolved a lawsuit filed by the town against the state
over the state's construction of Garner Correctional Institution, provided, in
part, that the state build a bypass road across the Fairfield Hills grounds to
alleviate traffic congestion in the town center.
