Thomas Breen photo
Elected officials, cycling advocates shovel celebratory dirt.
Phase IV, in the works: As viewed from Whitney Avenue.
Public officials and cycling advocates tossed shovels full of dirt Monday to celebrate the start of construction of the city’s final leg of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail — which when finished in December 2022, will finally connect downtown to Long Wharf.
That dirt-tossing marked the culmination of a celebratory press conference held in the Park of the Arts behind Audubon Street.
City Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli, Mayor Justin Elicker, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Joe Giuletti, Downtown Alder Abby Roth, and a half-dozen others gathered under the midday sun to laud the recently begun construction on Phase IV of the canal trail.
Phase IV, which has been in the works for a decade, will see the below-grade section of the rail trail paved, landscaped, and opened to the public from its current terminus on Temple Street down to Grove Street. The trail will then rise up to at-street level beyond the Grove Street garage, and snake its way through street sharrows on Olive Street down to an already-built protected bike lane on Water Street, Brewery Street, and Long Wharf Drive.
When that work is complete in December 2022, Piscitelli said, the pedestrian-cyclist trail will offer a “seamless, off-road connection” — with only two still-unbuilt sections in Connecticut and Massachusetts — between New Haven and Northampton, Mass.
“It’s more than recreation,” Piscitelli said about Phase IV’s downtown stretch. “You can get to work by taking the Farmington Canal from Dixwell, Newhallville, Hamden, Cheshire.” People use the trail as a commuter network today, he said. It will be all the safer and easier to do that when Phase IV is complete.
Aaron Goode.
Local cycling advocate and long-time Farmington Canal proponent Aaron Goode said that the long-delayed start of construction of Phase IV fits in well with the current nationwide political focus on infrastructure.
He said he views parks and trails like the Farmington Canal as some of the most essential infrastructure around.
Why?
“They let us exercise our bodies and clear our minds. They take us interesting places. They teach us about our cultural heritage, with figures like William Lanson. They create a sense of place. And they bring us joy.”
Goode also said that, during the height of the pandemic last year, New Haven’s stretch of the canal trail saw 170,000 trips taken — “blowing away” the number of trips taken pre-Covid.
Downtown Alder Abby Roth.
“The canal path connects neighborhoods within New Haven, and connects New Haven to other towns,” Roth said. “It activates space, enables safe, sustainable transportation, preserves history, and provides a beautiful space that at spots feels very rural and at other locations like here has the vibrancy of an urban setting.”
City Plan staffer Anne Hartjen said that, when Phase IV construction is complete, people will be able to access the trail by continuing on the existing path south from Temple Street. They’ll also be able to walk down a new set of stairs and a subsequent ramp near Whitney Avenue that connects to the Park of the Arts behind Audubon Street. And they’ll be able to use a ramp that will connect from Grove Street down to the below-grade section of the trail.
Click here to watch the full press conference.
What happened to all the tree cover behind Koffee? Was clearing that entire area really necessary for work in the canal portion? Looks so desolate now - used to be a shady and enclosed spot to enjoy a coffee. Hope this is only temporary and there is some remediation planned, but any new trees will not even come close to matching the canopy the old trees provided before.