The Newtown Police Department has issued its final traffic advisory in anticipation of the 2022 United Ride.

On Sunday, September 11, the annual 9/11 United Motorcycle Ride will pass through Newtown. The ride will enter town on Route 302, then turn right onto Route 25, and travel South into Monroe.

Residents should expect heavy delays on Route 302 and Route 25 between approximately noon and 1 pm. According to an NPD spokesperson, although the event will cause traffic delays, it is a positive and moving tribute to those lost on 9/11/2001.

Residents are encouraged to stand along the route and cheer on the Motorcycles, which in years past have numbered in the thousands.

As previous reported in The Newtown Bee, Founder and Executive Director Fred Garrity Jr, explained that this ride is “for those that lost their lives, for those that gave their lives, and for those that continue to put their lives on the line each day — that’s why we ride.”

Motorcycle police from over a dozen towns and cities will ensure the safety of the ride. With local town and escort police, in total there will be over 25 municipal fire companies, and 35 police departments involved.

Traditionally there have been 100+ fire trucks out along the route, most with aerial ladders holding large American flags over the roadway.

The motorcade will depart from Sherwood Island in Westport at 11:30 am. It will travel through Wilton (Georgetown), Redding, Bethel, Newtown, Monroe, Trumbull, and Fairfield, before arriving in Bridgeport.

All nine towns and the CT DOT have reportedly granted a State permit for the motorcycles with up to 100 police escorts to ride 60 miles in one continuous line, with no lights and no stops, including a section of I-95 South.

Motorcyclists are not allowed to join in as the motorcade passes. Escort police will be strictly enforcing this.

Registration is $30 per rider, and $30 per passenger. Motorcyclists can register two ways: Saturday, September 10, between 11 am and 5 pm, at Captains Cove Seaport in Bridgeport; or the morning of the event, from 8 to 10:15 am, at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport.

All five of Newtown’s fire companies have traditionally participated, with firefighters staged in Dodgingtown, at 40 South Main Street, and Botsford.

The public is welcome to join firefighters at those locations, or anywhere along the route.

In a related note, Governor Ned Lamont is directing US and state flags in Connecticut to remain lowered to half-staff on Sunday, September 11, in remembrance of the nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Flags are also currently at half-staff throughout the United States as a mark of solemn respect for the memory of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday. Flags should continue flying at half-staff for this purpose through sunset on the date of her interment.

Additionally, Governor Lamont today announced that the state will illuminate the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New Haven – informally known by many residents as the Q Bridge – in red, white, and blue lights beginning at dusk on the evenings of Saturday, September 10, and Sunday, September 11, in recognition of the anniversary. Beacons capable of projecting light nearly six miles into the clear night sky will be lit until the early morning hours.

The State of Connecticut’s official 9/11 memorial honoring the victims of the attacks is located on a peninsula at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport, where on a clear day the Manhattan skyline can be viewed across the Long Island Sound. It features a stone engraved with the names of the 161 people with ties to Connecticut who were killed in the attacks.

The state park was chosen as the site for the memorial because it is the location where many people in the immediate aftermath of the attacks gathered to observe the devastation on Lower Manhattan across the sound. The site was also used by the Connecticut National Guard in the following days and weeks as a staging area for Connecticut’s relief efforts to New York City.