Stamford plans $5 million overhaul of key Glenbrook intersection
STAMFORD — An intersection in Stamford’s Glenbrook
neighborhood is getting a complete redesign with traffic signal upgrades, new
sidewalks and additional improvements, intended to make it more “pedestrian
friendly.”
Senior Transportation Planner Luke Buttenwieser said the
planned upgrades at the intersection of Glenbrook Road and Church Street
are part of the city’s Vision Zero pledge adopted in 2022, hoping to end all crash
fatalities by 2032.
“People make mistakes when they’re driving, but those
mistakes shouldn’t cost people their lives,” he told residents during a virtual
meeting Thursday night. “Safety is proactive; people are vulnerable.”
Buttenwieser said the project was the result of a
transit-oriented feasibility study the city conducted in 2015. He said the
study found that the traffic signal infrastructure at the intersection was
outdated and needed a complete redesign. The project also includes new roadway
and pedestrian lighting and raised crosswalks, he said.
“The traffic signal is toward the end of its useful
life. Sidewalks are deteriorating. The asphalt is past its useful life,” he
said.
Buttenwieser said the project will cost just over $5 million
and is grant-funded by the state Department of Transportation’s Local
Transportation Capital Improvement Program. He said 60% of the design is
completed and construction is expected to start sometime in 2027.
There will be some closures during construction, but
pedestrians will still have access to the businesses in the area, he said.
Buttenwieser said the project will also improve the area’s
connection to Metro-North Railroad's nearby Glenbrook station on the New Canaan
Branch.
“We’re very lucky to have this branch line train station
here that brings commuters direct access into Grand Central or into Stamford
and the rest of the New Haven line,” he said.
Buttenwieser said the intersections at Glenbrook Road and
Church Street, as well as the intersection at Crescent Street, will get new
traffic signals, which will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities
Act.
He added that the sidewalks along Glenbrook Road from
Crescent Street to Church Street, as well as from Cowing Place to Parker
Avenue, will be replaced and also made ADA-compliant. He said the intersection
at Kirkham Place will be realigned and a green space will be added to the
area.
City Rep. Lewis Finkel, who represents District 17 in
the Springdale neighborhood, asked if there will be any issues with utility
poles while new sidewalks are installed.
“There are going to be some utility pole relocations as part
of this. We actually had our utility meeting on Monday with utility companies,
making sure we have that clear width over there,” Buttenwieser said.
Seaside Avenue resident Gina Calabrese said she was still
unsure about how necessary the project is.
“I guess I was just curious about the background of the
project because it didn’t strike me as a particularly problematic area,” she
said.
Buttenwieser said the goal of the project is to
improve walkability to the train station, replace the sidewalks and
upgrade the aging infrastructure. He said there will also be new street and
pedestrian lights added, as well as some raised crosswalks and road paving.
NB receives $14.7M to redesign intersection
Claudia S. Hilario
NEW BRITAIN — A busy East Side intersection known for traffic backups and crashes will be redesigned after the city received a $14.7 million federal grant to improve safety, traffic flow and access to nearby neighborhoods.
Mayor Bobby Sanchez and Governor Ned Lamont said Friday
morning, along with local and state officials, the city was awarded a federal
Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant to rebuild
the intersection of Route 174, East Street and Newington Avenue.
The project will replace the current offset, signalized
Z-curve with a conventional four-leg signalized intersection. Plans also
include new sidewalks, ADA-accessible curb ramps, high-visibility crosswalks,
decorative pedestrian lighting, streetscape improvements and two pocket parks.
The work is expected to improve connections to the East Main Street CTfastrak
station, Chamberlain Elementary School, downtown and nearby neighborhoods.
“This funding is a major victory for New Britain and for
everyone who travels through this corridor every day,” Sanchez said. “For
years, residents have identified this intersection as one of the city’s most
dangerous and frustrating roadways. This $14.7 million investment allows us to
finally address those concerns with a project that will save lives, improve
traffic flow and create a safer, more welcoming entrance to our city. This is
exactly what happens when local, state and federal partners work together to
deliver real results for our community.”
Lamont said the project reflects the state’s effort to
improve everyday quality of life.
“That’s what this intersection is all about,” Lamont said.
“Little things that make a difference in people’s lives. That’s what we’re
trying to do every day in the state that has a lot of really old and creaky
intersections.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the project an example
for communities across the country.
“We are taking an intersection that causes danger to
pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as cars, and making it safer, but also
adding to economic opportunities, creating more jobs, improving quality of
life,” Blumenthal said.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said the city has many older roads
and intersections that need improvements.
“This project is gonna matter,” Murphy said. “You won’t
believe how beautiful and well-designed this new intersection is going to be.”
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Murphy said the redesign will not only improve traffic for
drivers but also make it safer for people walking or biking to nearby
businesses and CTfastrak.
“This redesign is obviously about making it safer for auto
traffic, but it’s also about making it safer for people who just want to make
that walk to the pizza place or make that walk to commute to Fasttrack,” he
said.
State Rep. David DeFronzo noted the investment is one of the
largest on the East Side in decades.
“This project is really important to the people of the East
Side and to New Britain’s larger vision for what we want to see our city become
in the future,” DeFronzo said. “This represents one of the largest investments
in the East Side of New Britain in decades.”
Public Works Director Mark Moriarty told the Herald the
intersection has long been one of the city’s biggest traffic trouble spots.
“Traffic backs up over a thousand feet down Newington
Avenue,” Moriarty said. “Besides just it being taking longer to do things, it
also pushed cars into the neighborhoods.”
He said the Capitol Region Council of Governments recently
identified the corridor as one of the top 30 crash locations in the region.
Moriarty said the city hopes to begin construction in 2028
and complete the project in 2029.
“It’s gonna be beautiful,” he said. “You’re gonna eliminate
that congestion. Most people that are local to here avoid using this road
because of the congestion problem, so then they drive on a local road, so
you’re gonna have a major arterial that actually functions like a major
arterial.”
He agreed the redesigned intersection also will provide
safer crossings for pedestrians and better connections to CTfastrak and nearby
trails.
More Work Zone Speed Cameras Go Live Across State Highways
More highway work zones across Connecticut are now being
monitored by speed cameras as the state expands its effort to slow drivers in
construction areas where nearly 4,900 accidents have occurred over the past
five years.
Speed cameras went live Sunday at the Interstate 91,
Interstate 691 and Route 15 interchange construction projects, joining a
growing network of enforcement cameras operating through the state Department
of Transportation’s Know the Zone program.
The program was launched after highway workers repeatedly
raised concerns about speeding and distracted driving in work zones, where
crews often work just feet from passing traffic. According to the CT
CRASH database, there have been 4,867 crashes involving work zones
statewide from 2021 to 2025, resulting in 18 fatalities.
The state uses two types of work zone speed cameras:
stationary units mounted on utility trailers for long-term projects like the
interchange construction in Meriden; and mobile units, mounted on SUVs, for
short-term projects like paving or pothole filling. The Department of
Transportation maintains a map showing
approximate locations of the cameras, though only 15 cameras can be active at a
time, according to state law.
During a statewide testing period from March through May,
the cameras detected 8.4 million vehicles traveling through work zones. Of
those, 1.3 million were traveling above the posted speed limit, according to
department spokesperson Eva Zymaris. Roughly 4,000 were traveling at more than
85 mph through work zones, and 150 drivers were traveling more than 100 mph.
“That kind of behaviour puts workers, motorists, passengers,
law enforcement [and] first responders in danger,” Zymaris said.
The warning period for the cameras began June 1 before full
enforcement began early July.
These cameras only activate when crews are working and
photograph license plates of cars going 10 or more miles over the posted speed
limit. On the first violation, drivers receive a written notice. On a second
violation within a year, the driver will be charged a $75 fine. Drivers going
over 85 mph or more will face a $75 fine, even if it is their first
violation.
Speed cameras have been facing
growing controversy as they are installed in cities and towns across
the state. Many residents say the cameras are “warrantless
surveillance” and do little to actually stop speeders.
But according to data from the DOT’s work zone speed camera
pilot program, the cameras reduced speeding by as much as 20% in some
cases.
“There were about 25,000 warnings and 750 violations” during
this pilot, Zymaris said. “What we found is that these weren’t repeat
offenders, because once they got the warning, they changed their behavior and
they slowed down in work zones.”
Since the highway cameras’ activation, work crews said they
have noticed a difference in driver behavior.
“They can tell, physically, if a truck or a vehicle is going
55 miles per hour or 75 miles per hour. It makes a difference to them,” Zymaris
said.
For State Rep. Renee LaMark Muir, D-Chester, the issue is
personal. Several members of her family spent decades working in highway
construction.
“My family has always worked in heavy highway construction,”
she said. “For the whole time growing up it was always multiple pairs of
construction boots at the back door and everybody in pickup trucks and going
off to work.”
LaMark Muir said today’s roads are busier, vehicles travel
faster and work zones are more complex than when her father, grandfather and
other relatives worked on Connecticut highways. She said she believes speed
cameras can help make both workers and motorists safer.
“The problem of speeding is huge, not just on construction
sites, but just on our roads in general,” she said. “I’m hopeful that these
cameras will help.”
LaMark Muir said cameras will also reduce the need for
police officers to pull people over for speeding near highway work zones.
“First of all, there’s probably no real shoulder to pull
anybody over, so it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous for the police officer to get
out of the car, it’s dangerous for the driver and the occupants in the car if
they’re not parked on the side of the road in a safe manner,” she said.
LaMark Muir, a former Hartford police officer, said she
understands the privacy concerns surrounding speed cameras, but said the
cameras are simply capturing what is happening on the road.
The cameras “capture activities that are visible,” she said.
“If you’re speeding on a road, and if you and I were standing on the sidewalk
talking, we could see that. So it’s not a covert activity.”
Zymaris clarified that the cameras only take photos of a
vehicle’s license plate.
“If images containing occupants are captured, those will
automatically be removed or obscured from the images,” she said. Pictures are
only taken of speeding vehicles, not of every car that passes.
After a photo is taken, it is sent to state police to be
verified that a violation occurred. Citations are then issued by mail to the
registered owner of the vehicle and will not result in points on licenses or be
reported to insurance companies.
“If it prevents a worker from getting killed or a motorist
or police officer from getting hurt, then we have to weigh that,” she
said.
Because the enforcement program has only been active for a
few weeks, the DOT does not yet have data on how much revenue the cameras have
generated. Any money collected will be deposited into the state’s Special
Transportation Fund for transportation infrastructure and safety improvements.
But Zymaris emphasized that the cameras are not meant to be revenue
generators.
“We hope that this makes $0,” she said. “What it’s really
about is changing driver behavior. … We hope that no one receives the citation
and fine.”
$12M project coming to CT airport. Goal includes making room for travelers on new routes
A $12 million expansion
of much-needed parking could carry the state’s largest commercial
airport for five years, easing a looming parking crunch at peak travel periods
and accommodate future route expansions, including flights
such as a long-sought nonstop to London.
Bradley
International Airport will increase its parking by 20% by this spring,
adding more than 1,500 spaces on what was once the hub of airport car rentals.
That would push the number of spaces operated by Bradley from its current 7,900
to nearly 9,500, spread across a garage and surface lots.
“During your high travel periods or on holidays or high peak
summer travel or spring break, we do start getting close to capacity,” said
Michael W. Shea, executive director and chief executive of the Connecticut Airport Authority, which
oversees operations at Bradley.
“So as we built our ground transportation center, which
opened in 2022, which houses all our rental car operations, it really freed up
the old rental car sites and made them available for parking.”
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The project, now well into construction, encompasses 14
acres off Schoephoester Road and is the largest expansion in parking at Bradley
in more than a decade. The project also is a sign of the airport’s aspirations
to raise its profile among mid-size airports in the region with further route
expansion.
The addition of the 1,500 spaces is essentially an expansion
to the existing, 740-space lot at Schoephoester and Postal roads, a popular
choice for travelers because it is close to Bradley’s main terminal and its
rates are cheaper than the airport’s garage. The lot — known as Economy Lot #3
— is connected to the terminal by a free shuttle.
The CAA said the rates for the new surface parking spaces
will reflect those on Economy Lot #3.
Those prices range now range from $7 to $12 a day and $42 to
$72 a week, according to Bradley’s website. That compares with $30 a day and
$135 a week in the garage.
Some of the rates saw an increase in the past year,
including a $12 increase on the lower end of the weekly rate for surface
parking; and a $2 increase on the daily rate and $5 for the weekly rate in the
parking garage.
In Economy Lot #3, the current daily rate is $8 and the
weekly, $48.
The CAA said Bradley’s parking pricing is lower than the
large airports in New York and Boston as well as similarly-sized airports in
the region.
The addition of more parking also shows the magnitude of the
need. In addition to what is overseen by Bradley, there are an estimated
“several thousand” spaces around the airport run by private operators.
To create Bradley’s expanded parking venue, construction has
involved relocating Postal Road — the entrance to the post office in the
airport — farther to the east. The new entrance to the post office opened in
July.
The old Postal Road now will become the main entrance to the
expanded parking with a new, internal traffic light, security booth and EV
charging stations.
The project will be financed solely through the airport’s
cash reserves, Shea said, because it doesn’t qualify for federal transportation
grants, unlike other recent major projects.
London Calling?
The expansion of parking comes as the CAA offers nonstop
flights to 43 destinations — down slightly from 46 a year ago with the departure of Avelo Airlines. Even so, the number
of nonstop destinations still is 40% more than what it was when the then-newly
formed, quasi-public CAA took over the operations of Bradley in 2013.
Shea said Bradley continues to seek new nonstop routes for
air travelers, pointing to two recent announcements. Those are low-cost
carrier Breeze Airways‘
summer seasonal, twice weekly to Louisville and United Airlines daily, year-round
service to Houston.
Internationally, a gap was left by the departure of Avelo,
which offered flights to the Caribbean — a market, Shea said, that remains of
high interest to Bradley.
But among the top priorities for securing new, nonstop
destinations is London, Shea said.
A nonstop to London has long been seen as critical to
strengthening the relationship between Hartford, the surrounding communities
and Connecticut with firms in the United Kingdom across a broad spectrum of
industries.
“The amount of business that is already transacted between
our companies here in the Hartford region and in London, in particular, is
tremendous,” said David Griggs, the president and chief executive of the MetroHartford Alliance, the region’s
chamber of commerce. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in the insurance sector, the
IT sector, the defense sector, there is so much business back-and forth between
broadly Connecticut but certainly the Hartford region and the U.K. that it
easily warrants that flight.”
Griggs said the direct connection is critical in attracting
companies in the U.K. to establish presences in the Hartford area and elsewhere
in Connecticut.
“As soon as you have that direct connection, then you’re
actually able to start bringing smaller companies over because smaller
companies want that direct flight,” Griggs said. “They don’t want to fly to New
York and then have to figure out how to get here.”
The InsurTech
Corridor between Connecticut and the U.K. already has encouraged a
growing number of firms from across the Atlantic to establish modest outposts
in Connecticut.
A study by the CAA showed the economic impact of the
Bradley-London service to the Greater Hartford region and the state. Those
benefits included more than $72 million in total economic output in the first
year, rising to more than $389 million in five years. In five years, the route
would generate $28 million in state and local taxes and create 601 full- and
part-time jobs.
The CAA’s research shows that 250 individuals travel each
way on a daily that would make use of a daily, nonstop flight between Bradley
and London. Those travelers are now using airports in New York or Boston.
Neither Shea nor Griggs would comment directly on the status
of any on-going negotiations to bring a nonstop flight to London to Bradley —
except to say it remains a priority.
But a source familiar with the discussions said Bradley came
close this spring to securing the route. But, the source said, a spike in jet
fuel prices resulting from the U.S.-Israel war with Iran had the airline
pulling back on expansion plans due to price uncertainty.
The airline couldn’t immediately be determined, but British Airways has long been
seen as a leading candidate, with service into London’s Heathrow Airport.
The nonstop route also would require $15 million in
state-funded incentives — the estimate in 2025 — which would need
legislative approval.
The incentives — divided over two years — would be used to
guarantee that the revenue drawn by the airline from the trans-Atlantic route
matches what is forecast, particularly in the months after the route first
launches and gets established. The funds may or may not be tapped.
Bradley now offers trans-Atlantic service to Dublin on Aer Lingus, which resumed in 2023 after a
hiatus during the pandemic. Aer Lingus caters primarily to leisure travelers,
while the London carrier would be mostly business travelers.
Passenger volumes down
The addition of more parking at Bradley comes amid $243
million in recently-completed projects, aimed partly at modernizing baggage
screening and the addition of three new gates. The projects also included to
additions the east and west ends of terminal that connect arriving passengers
with baggage claim, easing congestion at a now-eliminated central stairwell.
The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, passenger checkpoint has
been expanded into the former stairwell space.
Through June of this year, passenger counts — measured by
arrivals and departures — are down by 4.2% to 3.15 million, compared with 3.29
million for the same period in 2025, according to the CAA.
In 2025, there were 6.66 million arrivals and departures,
compared with 6.65 million in 2024. The most recent peak was 6.75 in 2019, the
year prior to the pandemic.
“I think 2026 has been a challenge for all airlines and
airports, especially driven by geopolitical factors like the rise in jet fuel
prices,” Shea said. “There are numerous reports out there of airlines pulling
back capacity a little bit and their expectations for 2026.”
Bradley has a diversified mix of carriers, “which allows us
to be pretty stable but capacity is down a little bit compared with last year,”
Shea said. “But that is pretty consistent with airports across the country, in
particular medium hub airports of our size.”