I-84 reconstruction project nearly done in Waterbury
WATERBURY – Now that three lanes of Interstate 84 are open in each direction, crews are putting the finishing touches on asphalt that’s expected to carry 130,000 vehicles a day for decades.
On Tuesday night, the final overlay on I-84 westbound was completed. Paving of the exit ramps will continue for the next few days. Paving was finished in the eastbound direction earlier this month.
With the infamous I-84 S-curve straightened, the two-lane merge eliminated and a glasslike asphalt surface, cars can glide through Waterbury without having to stop, even during rush hour. The speed limit remains 45 because other parts of the $330 million project are still under construction.
Paving of side roads, including Reidville Drive and Hamilton Avenue, will continue until the asphalt plants close for the winter.
The paving process involves strict requirements and extensive testing to ensure a high-quality roadway is built that won’t crack or sink to create potholes.
First, crews lay a gravel subbase followed by multiple layers of asphalt. The subbase and asphalt surface is 30 inches thick when it’s finished.
The paving machine crawled along the highway at 0.4 mph, according to Project Engineer Christopher Zukowski. The slow speed helps ensure a consistent depth.
“We don’t want the paver to move too fast, and we don’t want it to ever stop during the pull,” Zukowski said.
The asphalt must meet the state Department of Transportation’s specific requirements. It needs to be between 265 degrees and 325 degrees Fahrenheit when it’s placed on the ground.
Workers use a temperature gun to measure the heat level in the truck, and if it’s questionable, a DOT inspector tests it with a thermometer.
The crew moves in the same direction as traffic, paving the entire roughly 3-mile length of the highway between Pierpont Road and Washington Street, one lane at a time. They work to keep the proper depth by controlling the “attack angle” of the screed and speed of the paver.
A single paving crew would put down 3,000 tons of asphalt per night, Zukowski said.
The lanes are linked by notch wedge joints, which prevent water from seeping in between them and causing potholes to form.
Even the pavement markings require meticulous work. The dashed white lines – which are 10 feet long and are separated by a distance of 30 feet – are embedded in the asphalt.
“We mill the pavement prior to painting the markings into the roadway, this way the plows are less susceptible to damaging them,” Zukowski said.
Connecticut asks Amtrak to add cars to address overcrowding
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut officials are asking Amtrak to add cars to some trains traveling between New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts, to alleviate overcrowding.
Expanded passenger rail service on the 62-mile (100-kilometer) Hartford Line between New Haven and Springfield began in June.
The Hartford Courant reports that Amtrak says it's now working with the Connecticut Department of Transportation to resolve crowding issues occurring on some Hartford Line trains. Amtrak trains on the Hartford Line have two cars.
Connecticut Public Radio reported Friday that passengers with college student transit passes were kicked off Amtrak when trains reached capacity.
Connecticut's transportation commissioner, James Redeker, says that's not supposed to happen. An Amtrak spokesperson told the radio station they had no record of removing passengers
Amtrak often works on a reservation system, selling only as many seats as are available. The Hartford Line removed caps on ticket sales.
Rail service was expanded to ease congestion along the Interstate 91 corridor.The $765 million project, which began with a feasibility study 14 years ago, included the construction of 21 new bridges and the laying of 21 miles of new track, allowing for a second working track between New Haven and Hartford. Some of the round trips are operated by the state of Connecticut; the others are Amtrak trains. The state's trains have four cars.
Amtrak could potentially use some of Connecticut's rail cars that aren't currently in use, Redeker told Connecticut Public Radio. He said the good news is that ridership is growing.
Private investment already crucial to Connecticut airports
Kevin Dillon
In response to the Oct. 16 column entitled "Private investment in state assets? CT should explore it," I wanted to take a moment to note the significant ways in which the Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) has already fully embraced this approach.
Our agency is a strong proponent of working with private businesses, as evidenced by our recent history and plans moving forward.
First, it is important to note that the lion's share of development at CAA airports is already private. Think of the CAA as a landlord. While we own the land and key facilities at our airports, we regularly work with private entities that are interested in investing in our airports. This can take the form of hangar development, concession build-out and more.
We have negotiated development deals with a wide array of entities across our entire airport system, with particularly significant hangar developments recently completed by TAC Air at Bradley Airport. In these scenarios, the private entity negotiates a lease term in return for making their own investments into facilities that will inevitably revert back to CAA control at the expiration of that term.
This is similar to the concept that was employed at JFK airport in their renovation program. In fact, since the CAA took control of our five general aviation airports from the Department of Transportation, we have negotiated roughly 1.7 million square feet of development from private entities, with investment commitments totaling roughly $50 million.
At Bradley alone, we have negotiated well in excess of 600,000 square feet of developments and more than $15 million in private investment over recent years. Looking towards the future, we have a master plan at Bradley totaling $1.4 billion worth of projects, a vast majority of which will come through utilizing private investment.
Another major example can be found with the ground transportation center that we are planning at Bradley Airport. In this case, the rental-car companies at Bradley will be jointly developing the nearly $215 million facility on property leased from the CAA. While the project will be backed by airport-generated bonding, the rental-car companies are the primary funding partners, and they will inevitably bear the cost of constructing and operating this facility.
Again, after the lease term expires, the facility will revert to CAA control.
While we believe that we are still years away from justifying the expenditure for new terminal facilities at Bradley, we fully intend to review opportunities for private investment for that major project. Private-sector investment is a key part of what we do at our airports, and we certainly do not intend to break that trend when presented with such an attractive opportunity.
In short, private investment has been core to many of our recent successes. We fully agree that private-sector engagement is important in developments across the state, and we plan to continue our aggressive use of this development tool in the future.
Kevin Dillon is the executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority.
Voters Should Put Lock On Transportation Fund
During my 18 years in the General Assembly, including 14 years as House chairman of the Transportation Committee, I’ve witnessed governors and legislative leaders raid the state’s Special Transportation Fund to avoid tough choices during short-term budget crunches. In doing so, they diverted millions upon millions of dollars, particularly in gas tax revenues, away from transportation projects. This has been not only a breach of the public trust, it has greatly undermined our ability to fund the state’s desperately needed infrastructure safety and needed upgrades.
On Nov. 6, the voters of Connecticut will finally have the chance approve the ballot Question 1, which will create a constitutional “lockbox” to ensure that dollars set aside for transportation will actually be spent on transportation. This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. It’s an issue that affects the life of every single resident of Connecticut.
For decades, the state has failed to invest adequately in our transportation infrastructure. As a result, the condition of our roads, bridges, tunnels and rails is increasingly alarming. Chunks of concrete are falling off the Hartford I-84 viaduct, I-95 turns into a parking lot most hours of the day and the Merritt Parkway simply cannot support the current volume of traffic.
We are endangering ourselves, our loved ones and the future of our state by failing to safeguard transportation dollars. Consider this: 47 percent of state-maintained roadways are in less than good condition, and that number could grow to 71 percent over the next 30 years. Connecticut has 334 bridges and one tunnel rated in poor condition. Nearly a third of those bridges were built prior to 1950. On the New Haven Rail Line, the busiest commuter rail line in the country, 76 percent of rail bridges were built before 1940, and four of those bridges were built more than a century ago. It would be nothing short of gross negligence for Connecticut to wait for a major bridge to fail before acting. Our historic lack of infrastructure investment is also harming our economy. The economic cost of traffic congestion in Connecticut is at least $4.2 billion annually, with some estimates putting it at more than $5 billion. Business leaders continually rank highway accessibility as their number one concern in deciding where to locate their businesses. We must take steps to support highway improvements for their job-creating growth.
Simply put, transportation investments are crucial to our state’s long-term interests. The good news is that over the last eight years, we’ve had a governor and legislative leaders who did the hard work of redirecting previously diverted gas tax revenues back into the Transportation Fund. Still, the risk remains that future governors and future legislatures may revert to old habits and once again raid the Transportation Fund instead of meeting budget needs head on.
It’s also true that the state passed legislation in 2015 to try to protect the Transportation Fund, but that’s not enough. It remains far too easy for future legislatures to circumvent that law. That’s why we need to go a step farther, and why a constitutional lockbox is absolutely essential. People and businesses from Stonington to Greenwich, from New Haven to Enfield and from Danbury to New London have spoken loudly and clearly. We need to upgrade our infrastructure to be competitive. Connecticut citizens deserve the assurance that money set aside for transportation will be used only for transportation.
We have an opportunity, and we need to seize it. We need to upgrade our infrastructure to be competitive, and this state deserves nothing less than a best-in-class transportation system. A “yes” vote Nov. 6 on Question 1 will be a vital step toward achieving Connecticut’s safer and more dynamic transportation future.
Tony Guerrera of Rocky Hill is the state representative from District 29. A Democrat, he is not running for re-election.