Downtown Crossing Phase 2 Readied

Does this intersection look familiar?

That’s Orange Street and MLK Jr. Boulevard South — as it’s designed to be reborn soon as a 21st century pedestrian and bike-friendly crossroads knitting the Hill and Downtown back together from the effects of last century’s urban ​“renewal.”

City officials and the project managers unveiled that picture Thursday night to demonstrate Phase 2 of the Route 34/Downtown Crossing project, set to begin construction in 2018.

The officials offered an overall Downtown Crossing update for the public at Gateway Community College, including a peek at the third and final phases of the project, which proposes to connect Temple Street to Congress Avenue.

Interim City Plan Director Michael Piscitelli said the goals of the project — reclaiming developable land, improving bike and pedestrian safety, reducing traffic congestion, and knitting back together two parts wrenched apart by highways and demolition in the mid-20th Century —remain consistent.

But there have been some modifications to the second phase, including finding the capacity to add a second northbound lane as part of a connected Orange Street and being able to utilize the existing stretch of North Frontage Road between State and Orange streets for bike traffic.

Downtown Crossing is an ongoing effort to replace the old Route 34 Connector mini-highway with through streets between downtown and the Hill. The goal is to recreate a neighborhood feel, where people can walk and bike safely and developers can put up new offices and stores.

The city received $20 million from a U.S. Department of Transportation ​“TIGER VIII” grant for Phase III, or the Temple Street portion, of the Downtown Crossing project. The city had asked double that amount. An earlier $16 million TIGER grant covered Phase I, which was completed in 2016. That connected College Street with Congress Avenue next to where Alexion Pharmaceuticals has since built a 13-story headquarters.

Phase II involves reconnecting Orange Street with South Orange Street near where a Montreal developer is theoretically going to build a $400 million new urbanist community on the site of the former New Haven Coliseum. (Endless delays have repeatedly pushed back envisioned start dates; many people in town consider the project dead.)

Piscitelli said that the biggest change for Phase II is providing entirely new intersections at Orange Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and at Orange Street and South Frontage Road.

Those additions, he said, will ​“allow for better mobility between downtown and the Hill District.” The first traffic light greeting those coming onto Route 34 would be at Orange Street instead of farther up at Church Street.

The new intersection would become the first ​“bike protected” in the state — meaning there will be crossing refuges and priority lights for bikers.

Piscitelli said that that there will be an opportunity to design something that lets those entering the city on Route 34 know that they’re in New Haven. The design of Phase II is 90 percent complete, he said; construction is expected to begin in 2018.

Phase III will involve elevating Frontage Road and MLK Jr. Boulevard and building a bridge over the existing service roads to the Air Rights Garage and 100 College St. The two service roads will have to be moved south to accommodate the elevation of the streets above. Piscitelli said that design for the last phase is about 30 percent complete and it would ultimately take about two years to construct. The city would like to create a pedestrian and bike friendly plaza as part of the construction of the Temple Street bridge but whether there will be funding for that remains to be seen.

Piscitelli said the most recent TIGER grant of $20 million has allowed for leverage of city bond funds. The city also has a $21.5 million grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development. Phase II is estimated to cost $18.5 million to complete; Phase III could run ups $36 million. Piscitelli said the Temple Street Bridge connection might have to be constructed without a pedestrian plaza, which would lower the cost to about $24 million. The first phase of Downtown Crossing cost about $30.5 million to complete.

Ronan Shortt, a program manager for design with WSP, one of the consultants for Downtown Crossing, said Phase III will convert certain segments of George and Temple Street from one-way streets to two-way to improve the circulation of traffic.

City Economic Administrator Matthew Nemerson called Downtown Crossing an example of what multiple governments and private partners can do when they work together, a creative solution for an 18.7‑square-mile city with sparse land available for development.

“People want to be near downtown. They want to be near Yale Medical School. They want to be near the highway,” he said. ​“This was a very dynamic and interesting concept to build over this highway.”