Date: Fri 08-Mar-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

bypass-road-FHH-DOT-DEP

Full Text:

Route 25/34 Bypass Road Delayed Again

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The scheduled start of construction on the Fairfield Hills bypass road has

slipped yet again, receding to the spring of 1997 at the earliest.

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. The bypass road will create

an alternate east-west, through-road for trailer-truck traffic between Route

25, Interstate-84, and Route 34.

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

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

As of last November, the tentative start of construction on the bypass road

was slated for the late summer or early fall of 1996.

Tim Gaffey, the state Department of Transportation's (DOT) bypass road project

manager, said Tuesday that even an April 1997 starting date for the work is

"extremely optimistic."

A tentative DOT schedule for the bypass project calls for design plans to be

finished by July and the construction bids to be advertised by September, he

said.

If construction starts in April 1997, it likely would be completed by

mid-summer 1998, Mr Gaffey said.

Mr Gaffey said the DOT hopes to conduct a public information session on the

Fairfield Hills bypass project during the last half of April.

Obtaining the necessary state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)

permits for the bypass project is expected to take about six months, he said.

A project such as the bypass road takes "a lot of coordination" among various

state agencies, he said, noting DOT's need to obtain DEP permits, as well as

the state Department of Public Works' (DPW) earlier involvement with designing

part of the project.

The DPW recently assumed control of the Fairfield Hills core campus from the

state Department of Mental Health (DMH). DMH operated a state psychiatric

institution there until December. The state Department of Agriculture (DOA) is

seeking control of open space acreage at Fairfield Hills.

"There's a lot more than meets the eye" in building a bypass road, Mr Gaffey

said. The project includes building a bypass road across the core campus,

rebuilding Mile Hill Road, and building a new bridge across the Pootatuck

River, near the Pootatuck Aquifer. The sprawling aquifer is the town's major

underground drinking water source.

Cost estimates on the Fairfield Hills bypass project range from $4 million to

$5 million.

Town officials view the bypass road as a "pressure valve" to alleviate some of

the heavy trailer-truck traffic that now travels through the town center as

trucks drive between Route 25, Interstate-84, and Route 34. Through-truck

traffic currently isn't allowed at Fairfield Hills. The bypass road will

include wide travel lanes and hill-climbing lanes to facilitate through-truck

travel across Fairfield Hills.