Rebuilding A Community, Not Just A Road

Neighbors broke into applause upon hearing the latest plans to re-do traffic-troubled Quinnipiac Avenue. They were truly cheering, not joking.

This remarkable turn of events occurred at the Waucoma Yacht Club Tuesday night after City Engineer Richard Miller unveiled before 75 neighbors the latest plans for a main drag that has bedeviled the neighborhood for years.

Few of the plans were a surprise, because the community has been involved in the evolution of the plans since they began, in earnest, in 2002.

Triggered by the closing of the Ferry Street Bridge and the sudden traffic onslaught on Quinnipiac, local people formed the Quinnipiac River Community Group, under whose auspices Tuesday’s meeting was called.

“The people here,” said Miller (on left in photo, with Fair Haven Heights Alder Alex Rhodeen), ​“talked, and we listened.”

The original plan, he conceded, was car-centric, focusing on how to move all that new traffic volume. Through a dozen community meetings and the advocacy of locals like Chris Ozyck and current and former alders, a shift occurred. Miller put it this way: ​“We realized we weren’t just rebuilding a road. We were helping to rebuild a community.”

Federal and state highway money is in the pipeline to the tune of some $6 to $7 million, the estimated costs. The city taxpayers, through the capital budget, are paying $600,000 to $700,000 for the design.

The plan calls for significant traffic-calming measures along the avenue from Fulton to Clifton Streets, as well as the rehabilitation of the stretches of historic redstone walls, and construction of new ones that fit into the historic district’s aesthetic.

Traffic calming features include a roundabout at Ferry Street, traffic islands at Lancraft and Clifton, and better sight lines along the whole length. At the frequently bottlenecked Grand Avenue Bridge intersection, the re-do forsees elimination of the left turn lane, so reduction from three lanes to two, and pedestrian bump-outs. The bump-outs will protect stretches of parking lanes alternating both sides of the avenue, narrowing the road significantly and thereby slowing traffic.

There have been many traffic accidents and fatalities in the area. Families with young children have pleaded with Miller to focus on residents and pedestrians more.

Miller heard. ​“Traffic engineering has changed. The character and use of the road,” he said, ​“should where possible be dictated by the use and character of the local residents.”

Lawyer Peter Treffers (pictured in top photo between Miller and Rhodeen), whose 19th-century house graces the southeast corner of Grand and Quinnipiac, reflected the partnership in action. He said he loved the idea of the bump-outs, which will broaden the sidewalk. ​“But that will mean,” he said, ​“that Dick Miller will move my wall back and then rebuild it. I’d like to make sure I see in advance exactly what the rebuilt wall will look like,.”

Miller said he would see to it.

Period stones from the abutments beneath the railroad bridge at Lenox, which will be demolished, will be re-used for fill-ins like Treffers, as well as a new retaining wall to run along the river side of Quinnipiac Avenue in front of the sloping forested section that drops down to the oyster businesses.

The road will be entirely dug out to its base — some two feet — and then repaved, eliminating bumps and hips.

Neighbors such as Maryanne Davis (left) and Esther Armmand came with letters from the state Department of Transportation Right of Way Office (there is such a thing) requesting temporary permission for future contractors of the re-do to move and reconstruct walls, or to grade the new road down to private driveways.

Miller said because federal money is involved, respect for private rights is especially scrupulous. In some instances, property owners may be compensated, but most of the easements are temporary, with no loss of property.

Armmand’s Turnbridge Condominiums at the southwest corner of Grand Avenue intersection, across from Treffers, will lose a little land to make way for the bump-out. She said the condo association had received a letter from DOT; a meeting is planned.

Was Armmand, a city employee, happy? ​“Yes,” she said, ​“the meeting was very useful and informative.” She was particularly happy that Turnbridge’s driveway out onto Quinnipiac Avenue would be regraded, and the right-turning traffic bearing down on them slowed. ​“We’re lobbying also,” she said, ​“for the right turn on the red light to be forbidden.”

Alex Rhodeen, who organized the meeting, said not only has Dick Miller worked tirelessly on the project, but the citizens of Fair Haven and Fair Haven Heights deserve kudos as well for their partnership. He added that even with the re-do at Clifton, that steep intersection remains troublesome because of its unavoidable narrowness. ​“We have a request with Traffic & Parking,” he said, ​“to replace the current flashing red light with a full fledged red-yellow-green.”

The plan, being finalized for the city by Ron Dagan of Luchs Engineering, is about 70 percent ​“mature.” If all the property owners sign off on their easements, the plan could be submitted to the state for final review and go out to bid this year, with construction beginning in 2009 and taking approximately one to two years.

Traffic would be open on the avenue throughout, although the slowness due to construction, Miller said, would eventually drive away all but local people so congestion would be tolerable. The project would not start until after the Ferry Street Bridge reopens — and before the Grand Avenue Bridge closes for its turn at repairs.