Date: Fri 17-May-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Fairfield-Hills-bypass

Full Text:

State Sets Bypass Info Session For May 22

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) has scheduled an informational

meeting on its plans to construct a bypass road across the Fairfield Hills

grounds.

The session is slated for Wednesday, May 22, at 7:30 pm at Newtown High School

on Route 34 in Sandy Hook.

The meeting is designed to allow open public discussion of views and comments

on the project. The DOT is urging residents, business owners, commuters to

attend, listen, and discuss the road building project.

The DOT considers the bypass project to be a combination of three road

building jobs - the construction of a roadway across the Fairfield Hills

campus; the reconstruction of the section of Mile Hill Road from Nunnawauk

Road to Interchange 11 of Interstate 84; and the construction of a new bridge

to carry Mile Hill Road across the Pootatuck River. Although not posted as

such, Mile Hill Road is State Route 490.

DOT employees will attend the session to explain the project and answer

questions from the public. Project plans will be available for public review.

various cost estimates on the project range upwards from $3.5 million.

Detailed information, including maps and drawings, as well as written opinions

on the project are available for public inspection by contacting Bradley J.

Smith, manager of state design, at 1-860-594-3272, Connecticut Department of

Transportation, 2800 Berlin Turnpike, Newington, CT, Mondays through Fridays

from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

The DOT has scheduled the start of construction on the oft-delayed Fairfield

Hills bypass road for the spring of 1997 - but that goal will only be met if

all the pieces of the road planning process fall properly into place,

according to DOT's engineers.

The 5,700-foot bypass road, a connector road that is viewed as an integral

link in the town's east-west road network is considered by town officials as a

means to improve traffic flow between Route 25, Interstate-84 and Route 34,

thus relieving heavy truck traffic through the town center. The bypass is

designed as a 36-foot-wide connector road posted with a 40 mph speed limit.

The DOT must obtain required wetlands construction permits from the state

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to build a road and bridge above

the environmentally-sensitive Pootatuck Aquifer, the town's designated sole

source aquifer.

If a public hearing on the wetlands permit is requested, it could add 6 to 12

months to the permitting process, pushing the start of construction that much

farther into the future, he said. Members of the Pootatuck Fish and Game Club

are expected to have much say over whether a DEP public hearing is held on

DOT's wetlands construction application. The club's land holdings are located

on the south side of Mile Hill Road, near the bridge crossing site.

A large elevated bridge is planned to replace the antiquated bridge on which

Mile Hill Road now crosses the Pootatuck River.

Traffic flow will be maintained across the Fairfield Hills grounds while the

bypass road is under construction. That flow, however, will be one-way traffic

at times to allow construction to proceed.

The DOT plans to install contamination filters on the roadway above the

aquifer to protect the evironmentally-sensitive area. The filtration system is

designed to contain the "first flush" of runoff which carries the greatest

amount of pollutants during storms. The four filters will be cleaned out once

or twice yearly.

The bypass road project is environmentally significant in that it's unusual to

build a major connector road in a place containing an area's designated sole

source aquifer.

Traffic will be maintained across Fairfield Hills while the bypass road is

being built and no traffic detours are anticipated, according to DOT.

Motorists may be restricted to alternating one-way traffic while the Mile Hill

Road bridge that crosses the Pootatuck River is being replaced.

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.

But time and again, the construction schedule for the bypass road has been

revised, pushing the beginning of construction farther into the future.