nothin Sayonara, Southbound Lanes | New Haven Independent

Sayonara, Southbound Lanes

Paul Bass Photo

These will be the last humans to set foot on the old southbound I‑95 lanes above the Quinnipiac River. They’ll start dismantling the old bridge now that …

… these distinguished humans finished with a Monday afternoon press conference high atop it the 55-year-old lanes.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, and state transportation chief James Redeker (from left in the photo) took that last walk Monday afternoon upon that sun-scorched southbound stretch of the old Pearl Harbor Memorial Q” Bridge.

They walked there to celebrate a milestone in the ongoing, ahead-of-schedule and under-budget $2 billion overhaul of I‑95 between Exits 46 and 54: The closing of the southbound lanes on the old Q bridge.

The project is a complete bridge replacement. The new bridge is half-done, and since Friday is carrying all highway car traffic in both directions across the river. The old bridge is now out of commission and will be dismantled as the new bridge is completed.

The state closed the old bridge’s last lanes Friday. It diverted traffic, for now, onto the already-completed northbound lanes of the new version of the Q bridge now under construction. For now, three lanes will travel northbound, three southbound on that completed portion of the new bridge.

Meanwhile, construction crews (like the men from Walsh Construction in the top photo) will get to work demolishing the old southbound lanes, then constructing the new version, from which cables will connect to the open sockets pictured above. The entire project is scheduled to be completed in November 2016. The old bridge was built in 1958 to accommodate 40,000 cars a day. Now 120,000 cars cross it daily.

Making room for all those people to drive is a good thing, Gov. Malloy claimed in remarks at Monday’s press event amid the congratulatory honks of Skinny Cow and Anchor Insulation trucks speeding by on the elevated new southbound lanes to his left. Connecticut needs jobs. We are finding ways to produce them” through this I‑95 overhaul while improving our transportation infrastructure,” Malloy proclaimed.

Rosa DeLauro agreed. This is about growth in Connecticut, how we build jobs,” she said, noting that 87 percent of the project’s money comes from the federal government. She said the new bridge will keep our economy and our commuters moving.”

A reporter asked Malloy if there’s any chance the state will revive a portion of the original new Q plan that got dropped: Including light-rail tracks on the bridge. Surrounded by his car-traffic state Department of Transportation (DOT) bureaucratic boosters and contractors, Malloy bristled in response: That’s out of left field,” he quipped. Then he pivoted from offense to defense. We are deep in rail projects right now,” he said, and counted them off with his fingers. Fairfield. West Haven. Improvements in New Haven … Doing studies in Stamford and Bridgeport … Bridgeport and Orange! We’re doing a lot of light rail. I’m a light rail proponent.”

Then his DOT commissioner, Redeker, stepped to the mic to answer the original question. Light rail was an option that was dropped in lieu of Shore Line East,” he said. We just expanded Shore Line East.” Then he invited light-rail supporters to travel to the web to get on transformct.com and get us your ideas.”

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