Signal Changes Coming — Eventually

Stand at the corner of Church and Chapel Street and you’ll see pedestrians trying to catch buses that stage at various transfer points on the Green, often crossing against the light so that they don’t get left behind. You’ll see frustrated drivers trying to make a left turn from Chapel onto Church before the light turns red. And you’ll see a general pressure from drivers in other directions to not miss the light.

That’s one of a series of problem intersections slated to receive new traffic signals beginning in the summer of 2017.

“We need a left turn arrow at the light on Chapel St in the left lane turning onto Church St as cars heads towards state st.,” listener Tagan Engel wrote on the SeeClickFix platform recently when the issue was aired on WNHH radio. ​“This would greatly improve traffic at this intersection and make cars turning left do it much more safely for pedestrians.”

The city is seeking to make some changes to traffic signals at 18 intersections in and around downtown, responded Doug Hausladuen, new haven’s transit chief.

He said the city has federal money to address eight of those intersections starting next summer, including the one at Church and Chapel streets. Thanks to the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program, also known as CMAQ, the city has secured about $2.5 million toward the $3.1 million pricetag for construction.

“It’s all very cumbersome in a good way but sometimes a frustrating way,” Hausladen said in an interview. ​“Every step has a contract document, and every contract document has hundreds of emails back and forth and edits. It’s federal dollars, so it’s a little bit more of a cumbersome contracting process.”

The process is so cumbersome that it has taken four years to get to the construction phase. The city was approved for the project in 2012, which doesn’t count the time spent applying for the money. The federal money is administered by the state Department of Transportation through regional planning organizations that dole it out through a competitive application process.

“It takes forever,” city traffic engineer Bijan Notghi added. He pointed out that it will take another year and a half to actually start the work, but it could be the start to some even bigger changes to downtown down the line.

The biggest changes will come to four intersections along Church Street at Chapel, Court, Elm and Wall streets. The city is looking to put in a signal with a left turn indicator from Chapel; new signal lights along Church also will be designed for two-way traffic.

The city has been studying the benefits of transforming one-way streets like Church into two-way streets and the input from that study allowed it to make the case for redesigning the intersections, according to Hausladen.

Notghi said havingthe proper infrastructure to transform Church Street into a two-way street would allow for drivers get to MLK Jr. Blvd. more quickly without further entangling themselves in the narrower streets and pedestrian traffic that permeates downtown in that direction.

“A lot of people have to go to Temple Street now,” he said. ​“If this is a two-way there is no reason for anyone to go to Temple Street. It helps.”

The city is looking to make similar adjustments to signals where Temple and College streets intersects Chapel and Elm streets. But the long run-up to this first phase of construction also means that the cost of the construction has gone up to $3.1 million. And though the city has a nearly final draft of its design for the intersections, the length of time the project has taken to get of the ground and the amount of development happening in downtown make it all a very complex project.

Hausladen said that the city is making up the difference in the cost of the first phase of the project with a mix of earmarked money and capital funds.

“The signals are being replaced next year,” Hauslden said. ​“Church and Chapel is definitely on the list.”