New Haven Independent

Ground Broken On New Q Bridge

by Melissa Bailey | June 20, 2008 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

With construction underway on a new Q Bridge, commuters should see relief from crawling traffic … in 2016, officials announced.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell and transportation officials dug shovels into the banks of the New Haven Harbor Friday, marking the start of construction on a new Q Bridge (aka Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge). The new bridge will be the “crowning glory” of a $2 billion project to expand roadways on and around the I-95 corridor as it passes through New Haven. (Click here for an Independent story, and here for a state web site, detailing the project).

The project is “one of the largest transportation initiatives ever undertaken here in Connecticut,” said Rell at a groundbreaking ceremony Friday. As she spoke, trucks roared overhead on the original Q Bridge, built 50 years ago to accommodate 40,000 vehicles per day. Today, the daily traffic load has tripled, putting a strain on the structure and turning the roadway into a gridlock at rush hour. Bearing 120,000 vehicles per day, the stretch is one of the busiest in the nation, Rell said.

The state aims to replace the old bridge with a 10-lane, cable-suspended spectacle (pictured).

The project has run into some roadblocks along the way. About a year and half ago, the state found no bidders interested in taking on the work. That pushed back the original completion date from 2014 to 2016, according to Jim Boice, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Transportation.

In April, the project hit a $27 million blip when the lowest bidder dropped off the project.

To those people who have been scratching their heads wondering if the project would ever get done, Rell said the answer is “yes” — the bridge will get done, and it will be “something that we can all be proud of.”

Bids have now been secured for the $137 million Contract B-1. This first phase of bridge construction involves improving the Northbound I-95 entrance to the bridge and laying down the bridge’s foundations. Contract B-1 is due to be complete by 2011.

Rell said she did not expect similar difficulties getting interested parties to respond to bids on the project’s remaining six contracts. Adding to her words of enthusiasm were statements from U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who took credit for securing millions of dollars in federal money to support the project.

The Commuter’s View

For harried commuters making the trek across the harbor each day, Boice had a word of good news: Traffic will only get better from here on out, he said.

Work on the Q Bridge will be done “off-line” from I-95, meaning daytime traffic on the highway will not be interrupted. The plan is to build a second, 5-lane Q Bridge parallel to the existing one, then tear down the old Q Bridge and build another five-laner in its place. Any lane closures will take place only at night, not in the day, Rell said.

“Local roads may be affected during the daytime,” Rell said, but there are no plans to close I-95 between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.

For up-to-date information on the I-95 New Haven Harbor Crossing Corridor Improvement Program, with info on all the changes happening on the 7.2-mile stretch of I-95 between Exits 46 and 54, check out the state’s web site or call the construction hotline at (866) 277-9595.

Would the state complement the Q Bridge project with improvements that would let people get out of their cars and onto mass transit?

“We have to recognize that the predominant mode of travel here is on the roadway,” replied Joseph Marie, the state’s new transportation chief.

However, “with gas prices how they are,” he said the state has an opportunity to encourage alternative means of transit. Marie said that under his leadership, the state DOT would remain committed to the idea of building a transit-oriented development around New Haven’s train station to facilitate ridership there.

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Comments

Posted by: anon | June 20, 2008 4:25 PM

$2 billion for expanding highways, but no money to paint crosswalks or put up signalized intersections near each New Haven Public School?

Posted by: DingDong | June 20, 2008 4:33 PM

Great, let's spend millions of dollars to increase the amount of cars that pour into New Haven every day, all the while saying that there is no money for major traffic calming or mass transit improvements. Is there any way to stop this project? I realize the old bridge is falling apart and needs to be replaced, but there is no need for a 10-lane behemoth.

Posted by: bugupit | June 20, 2008 11:31 PM

DingDong DingDong you really think this bridge is about New Haven? It's nice that Gov. Rell was there, but that bridge is about the Boston New York Corridor, the Northeast, the Canadian part of NAFTA and other much larger forces. It's not about Pepe's pizza or movies on the Madison green.

What percent of construction will be paid by the Federal government? Thank you, Congresswoman DeLauro and Senator Dodd. (Time to go, Joe.)

Posted by: Joe | June 21, 2008 4:25 PM

This is why we can't pay for mass transit in the state. The State talks about having an intermodal system with real choice and then spends $2 billion on this bridge. How much is the "too expensive" commuter rail between New Haven and Springfield. Paving Connecticut is not a way to connect the Northeast Corridor.

So when someone asks why the State has no money for transit, just point them to the Q Bridge and other road projects that do nothing but induce traffic. It is unbelievable how we still have our head in the sand.

Posted by: DingDong | June 21, 2008 9:28 PM

Obviously I-95 is an interstate so there is interstate traffic on it but, though I have no data on it, the last time I crossed the bridge the vast majority of cars had Connecticut license plates. I'm almost unconvinced that saving interstate truck traffic thirty minutes is worth the expenditures on this bridge. (They can easily travel at non-peak periods of the day). Why not upgrade the rail system so that it can either carry more freight or take more passenger cars off of the road? When DOT says there is no money for such projects, this is where it went.

Posted by: bloggersareidiotsb | June 23, 2008 2:12 AM

finally. the q is dangerous.

Posted by: Richard Stowe | June 23, 2008 11:38 AM

Expanding capacity on Interstate 95 (even on the Q-bridge) sends the wrong message. Strategically it is imprudent. Drilling in the United States at current rates (5 billion barrels per day) proven domestic supplies will only last 11.5 years. If domestic supplies are depleted, our reliance on foreign oil will be even greater.

Instead, the capacity should be expanded on the Northeast Corridor, especially east of Old Saybrook on railroad track that is known as Shoreline East.

There is an agreement between Amtrak and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to limit train travel to 39 trains per day over 100-year old drawbridges. That's why Shoreline East can't run more trains east of Old Saybrook.

Federal money should be poured into replacing those drawbridges with high-level bridges immediately. While doing that the remaining at-grade intersections should be grade separated.

Posted by: Basta | June 23, 2008 10:24 PM

Boston-New York? NAFTA? Please. All that traffic goes up I-91 anyway (further evidence that a massive 10-lane Q-bridge is a wrong priority).

Count me in with those who think that upgrading Shore Line East and restarting New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail would be a far better use of government money. Who really thinks that there will be 10 lanes of cars who want to drive on the Q-bridge when gas costs $5.00/gallon?

Ground Broken On New Q Bridge

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