Footpaths along the Boulevard could get real sidewalks.
A foot path could become a real sidewalk and bus riders would get a new shelter if the city succeeds in a request to “connect” Ella T. Grasso Boulevard to the rest of the Hill.
The Board of Alders Community Development Committee Wednesday night voted unanimously to OK having the Harp administration apply to do that through a $317,085 state Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Community Connectivity grant. The grant would make it easier for people who walk and bike on Grasso Boulevard (state Route 10) and connect them to jobs and recreational facilities like the West River Memorial Park and Defenders’ Square Memorial Park.
The ask to the state (which the full Board of Alders still must approve) would come after the city successfully applied for $1.2 million for a pilot connectivity grant that is allowing it to build a protected bike lane and new pedestrian infrastructure that will connect the west side of town to downtown (Read the latest about that here.)
City of New Haven
The new project would add 3,300 linear feet of sidewalk beginning near New Haven Adult Education and then traveling north to connect with existing sidewalk at the north end of the Evergreen Cemetery, according to City Engineer Giovanni Zinn.
City transit chief Doug Hausladen noted that the state’s ongoing budget problems could make it hard to get the grant.
Because of the unknowns around the budget, it was unclear when the project might begin and finish. Hausladen said that should the city be chosen for the competitive grant it would take at least a season to design the project.
He argued that the city still stands a chance for the grant because of its previous success and because the project is designed around improvements to a state road and the nearby commercial district. The new sidewalks would better connect people to the Hill neighborhood, the Adult Ed Center, the University of New Haven and the Allingtown section of West Haven, according to a City Plan Commission advisory report. The City Plan Commission voted last Wednesday to recommend that alders approve the submission of the grant application.
The state is already planning to put in new traffic signals for Routes 1 and 10, Hausladen said. He also pointed out that the number of traffic accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists also raises the profile of that area for the grant.
“Tragically, there has been a number of crashes with pedestrians and cyclists,” he said. “We’ve lost three people: one cyclist and two pedestrians. The grant can’t come fast enough.”
The city has identified other gaps in the pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure that it wants to tackle including the lack of a sidewalk on the west side of Sherman Parkway, Wintergreen Avenue between Southern Connecticut State University and the housing communities in the West Rock section of the city, and Springside Avenue around Common Ground where a faculty member was hit while riding her bike to school.
Zinn said that the Boulevard connectivity project and another that would provide a sidewalk on upper Whalley Avenue near Walgreens are two of the bigger stretches that alders have been asked recently to authorize the administration to get going.
City Hall was late handing in an application for which their map has two typos in its title. How much are we counting on this grant?