New London flood prevention plan envisions ‘linear park’ along waterfront
John Penney
New London – An ambitious $16.5 million flood mitigation
proposal for South Water Street calls for a combination of new flood walls and
road-raising, along with design elements to make the downtown waterfront area
more attractive and functional.
The plan, which requires several steps before it can be
approved or funded, focuses on a 1,300-foot stretch of South Water Street, just
below Bank Street and a few feet away from railroad tracks.
Felix Reyes, the city’s director of planning and economic
development, said the road, where the rear sides of several Bank Street
properties are located, has the tendency to collect floodwater after heavy
rains.
One solution, floated by the Fuss & O’Neill civil and
environmental engineering firm to the City Council’s Economic Development
Committee earlier this month, proposes building flood walls between 3 and 6
feet near the Amtrak rail lines.
The firm said the walls would be sturdy enough to withstand
coastal flooding events up to a 100-year flood, which the U.S. Federal
Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, predicts have a 1% chance of occurring
each year.
The wall construction would likely coincide with raising
sections of South Water Street by up to 2½ feet to make the undulating road a
uniform height, said Akta Patel, an engineer with Fuss & O’Neill.
Patel said a recent University of Connecticut flood analysis
anticipated a 20-inch rise in sea levels by 2050, which could lead to flooding
in the common areas of South Water Street.
“That’s already happening in some areas with flooding into
basements and some property owners building flood walls,” she said. “And it’s
only going to get worse as sea levels rise.”
Ian Law, a Fuss & O’Neill associate, said he envisions a
series of beautification improvements to the South Water Street area to be
added in conjunction with the mitigation work.
Those additions could include transforming a nearby alley
connecting Bank Street into a pedestrian staircase; creating tree-filled
plazas; adding stadium-style seating; and laying cobblestone pavers.
Law said existing business delivery paths would remain
during the creation of the “linear park.”
The project would require the cooperation of nearby property
owners and Amtrak officials. Law said his firm met with several property owners
in the spring and will do so again.
The project cost was broken down into three segments:
$160,000 for tree planting; $1.6 million for drainage; and $14.7 million for
road elevation, flood wall and amenity work.
Law and Patel said the cost of the project could be covered
through a combination of FEMA and state Department of Economic Development
grants.
Reyes said another meeting will be held with property owners
ahead of grant application preparation.
“This is not just about South Water Street,” Reyes said. “We
have multiple development projects happening on Bank and State streets, as well
as other parts of the city. And they all tie into each other. If you have
flooding on South Water, it affects them all.”
WEST HARTFORD — Town officials this week revealed
their plans to reconstruct part of New Park Avenue, with designs calling
for what would be the town's first-ever separated bike lanes.
Up until now,
bike lanes in West Hartford have only ever been painted lines on the roadway.
But the town's new $6 million plans to overhaul a stretch of New Park Avenue
will provide cyclists with a safer mode of transportation through a two-way
separated bike lane buffered by concrete curbing.
It's part of West
Hartford's plans to improve safety on the busy roadway, which has seen
an increase
of both residential and commercial development over the past few years.
Housing has already been built along the corridor with two more projects
planned that will bring
hundreds of new residents to the area.
Plans also call for a partial road diet, bringing travel
lanes down from four to two with traffic sharing a center left turn line, just
like the road diet implemented on North Main Street. The project will also
create a raised platform bus stop with enhanced crosswalks that will shorten
the distance pedestrians have to travel to cross the roadway.
"There’s some new development along here as well, so it’s a busy area in terms of roadway and traffic volumes," said Joe Balskus of VHB, the consultant working with the town on the project, at a public meeting held on Tuesday. "We know bike lanes are safest when they’re separated. We’re doing a road diet and at the same time we’re enhancing the pedestrian crossings for those who use the bus."
That road diet would lessen closer to the Home Depot plaza,
Balskus said, adding that pedestrian crossing distances will be shortened
along the corridor. Crosswalks would overall be enhanced for safety, Balskus
said.
"The whole thing about pedestrians and crossing is
exposure," he said. "How much is that pedestrian exposed crossing the
roadway? With the road diet... you have a refuge island. Your exposure is
minimized."
Much focus during the meeting was given to how cyclists will
traverse the roadway in the future. Balskus and Dan Amstutz, a senior
transportation planner with VHB, outlined how the separated bike lane on the
western side of the roadway — beginning where New Britain Avenue meets New Park
Avenue — will work.
The nine foot wide travel lane will stretch to Talcott Road,
at which point cyclists would then enter a 10 foot wide off road multi-use path
that cyclists would share with pedestrians. That path would stretch to Oakwood
Avenue. In the past, the town has said they could look at extending that path
to Flatbush Avenue, but that would be a completely separate project.
"It really creates that dedicated space for people to
bicycle along the roadway which currently doesn’t exist," Amstutz said.
"It creates much greater separation away from the traffic."
Amstutz said the separated bike lanes should appeal to a
wider range of cyclists.
"It eliminates some of the risk and fear of colliding
with vehicles," he said. "It gives the less experienced bicyclist a
place where they can be not right in the middle of traffic. If that makes it
more attractive to a wider range of people who want to bicycle, it will
hopefully get more people out to bicycle and use this to get to locations along
the roadway."
The project will be funded by $3.7 million in state
funding, while the remaining $2.3 million will be funded by the town itself.
Plans should go out to bid soon with construction starting in the spring of
2025.
As road work continues in Middletown, find out what streets are slated for completion
MIDDLETOWN — With a goal of repairing some 10 miles of local
street surfaces by the end of the year, crews will be paving, milling, patching
and conducting other preservation efforts through the fall.
Current projects include Ridgewood Road, which will be
finished by Monday, according to acting Middletown Public
Works Director Howard Weissberg.
Final work on Smith Street, between Middle Street and the
I-91 bridge over Smith, which began last year, is expected to be complete by
Tuesday, he said Friday.
Next up will be curbing and more preservation work on the
south side of town, in the Chauncy and Chamberlain roads neighborhood, by
October, weather permitting, Weissberg said.
Paving is “sorely needed” in these areas, he explained.
Work on Rose Circle and Stoneycrest Drive, off Newfield
Street (Route 3), both of which contain several apartment complexes, is
underway.
Completed already are Northview Drive, Oak Ridge Drive and
Plumb Road, Acacia Drive, Basswood Drive, Congdon Street, Lee Street, Paddock
Road, Mile Lane, and the Wesleyan Hills area.
Construction typically begins in late spring. "We hit
the ground running in May,” the director explained.
The department is using some techniques that haven’t been
used in Middletown in the past to ensure longevity.
“That will allow us to get more miles treated,” he
said.
“Fall is typically when everything starts happening,"
Weissberg said.
State
Local Capital Improvement Program funding, as well as city road bonds,
are paying for the work, he said.
For the next couple of weeks, the state
Department of Transportation will mill and surface a nearly 3-mile
segment of Washington Street (Route 66), as well as St. John Square
leading to Route 9, according to the agency.
Project completion is estimated for Sept. 30.
Similar construction will be performed on Route 17 from
Randolph Road (Route 155) to Loveland Street, through Oct. 8.
Also, water main replacement on Court Street between Main
and Broad streets will take place through October.
The director, who asks for the public’s patience during the
process, acknowledged traffic delays and other issues will be a “challenge” for
motorists.