Developer’s new plan for cross Long Island Sound: Combination bridge and tunnel
Looking to build support for building a
$50 billion bridge linking Connecticut and Long Island, developer
Stephen Shapiro will pitch Albany and Hartford lawmakers in mid-June
on what he sees as a game-changing new design: mile-long tunnels on the
northern and southern ends.
“The whole idea is not to interfere with any residential
neighborhods” in either Bridgeport or Kings Park, N.Y.,” Shapiro said. “In
Bridgeport, the bridge would go into a tunnel about 1 to 2 miles off the coast.
The tunnel would come up right onto Route 25 and Route 8 near I-95.”
The idea would reduce the
visual impact from the coastlines and do away with concerns about
concrete piers, supports and an overhead highway appearing in established
neighborhoods, he said.
Shapiro has invited state and local elected officials from
both states to a June 15 presentation in Hartford, where he and other
supporters of the idea will lay out the case for building a direct 14-mile link
across the Long Island Sound.
Connecticut legislators this winter considered ordering a
feasibility study, but opted against it. But Shapiro and other advocates say
they’ll keep pressing the idea.
“A direct link to Long Island for cars, trucks and rail
would certainly be visionary and transformational,” Bill
Finch, a former Bridgeport mayor and one of Shapiro’s key allies, told
legislators in the winter. “Imagine a direct route between Long Island and
Connecticut and the time and pollution it would save compared to the current
circuitous and slow route now required.
Over the past century, there have been periodic proposals
for some form of direct connector, since all other highway links require a
costly and time-consuming trip through New York City.
But all previous plans fell through, usually because of the
construction expense or potential environmental damage. Planner Robert Moses
pursued a bridge proposal between Rye and Oyster Bay, N.Y., in the early 1970s;
usually known for getting his way, he couldn’t overcome opposition that time.
More recently, high-speed rail advocates a few years ago suggested an
underwater tunnel for trains between Bridgeport and Milford; that idea, too,
has gotten no traction.
Shapiro last year raised a different version of a bridge
idea, saying it’s long overdue and would slash driving times, prevent air
pollution, lighten traffic on I-95 and the Long Island Expressway, and provide
an important evacuation link at times of flooding. He suggested a span starting
at I-95 in Bridgeport and running to the northern end of the Sunken Meadow
State Parkway in Kings Park, a suburb on Suffolk County’s north shore.
While many transportation and community leaders dismissed
the idea as overwhelmingly huge and expensive, Shapiro has maintained that a
public-private partnership could get it done with private investment covering
half the expense. The federal government would come up with another 45%, and
Connecticut and New York would each contribute about 2.5%.
The bridge would charge a toll of about $40 one way, and
public and private investors would be repaid through that revenue in the
following decades, according to his plan.
When asked about the numerous ambitious, high-profile public
transportation projects that have blasted through their original budgets or
simply never been built, Shapiro pointed to the $4 billion, 3.6-mile Gov. Mario Cuomo Bridge that
replaced the Tappan Zee in 2018. Finch was director of the New York Thruway
Authority when construction was completed, and Shapiro suggested that Finch
could be the right leader for building a Long Island bridge.
Shapiro’s newest vision is sort of a reverse of the
famous Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia, which starts out from each
shore with about 6 or 7miles of bridge. When they’re about a mile apart in the
middle of Chesapeake Bay, both spans slope down into tunnels and then meet
undergound. It’s an entirely unbroken route for drivers, but the tunnel
location allows boat traffic to pass by.
Importantly, designers could save construction costs by
building the rest of the above-water bridge much lower since they didn’t have
to leave room for boat traffic, Shapiro noted.
His plan would have a tunnel-bridge design, but with the
tunnels starting inland from the two coastlines. At about 1 to 2 miles into the
Sound, each would rise from the water and the roadways would continue as a
regular bridge, joining in the middle of the Sound. With no obstruction near
either coastline, all boats could pass around the bridge — rather than under
it.
Supporters note the Chinese government built a
substantially longer
bridge-tunnel linking Hong Kong and Macau. They contend a Long Island
bridge would help the environment by reducing the long, pollution-causing
traffic tie-ups that plague I-95 through Fairfield County as much of the Long
Island Expressway. In addition, a new bridge would be a backup to the Throgs
Neck and Whitestone bridges in Queens.
He envisions a deck carrying commuter and freight train
traffic, noting that the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North are the two
busiest commuter lines in the country. The presentation to elected officials is
set for June 15 at noon at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.
Advocates ramp up pressure on Lamont to reject pipelines, citing economic data
Hoping to put pressure on Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration
to reconsider the state’s longtime reliance on natural gas, environmental
advocates are zeroing in on one aspect that’s particularly salient in an
election year: affordability.
A report released this week by two economists with the
Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut —
conducted on behalf of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters — argues
that past efforts to increase the use of natural gas in the state resulted in
costly infrastructure upgrades that were passed on to customers, without any
decrease in the price of fuel.
In addition, the report blames the state’s existing
gas-fired power plants for worsening local air quality while exporting large
amounts of electricity to other New England states.
A copy of the report was shared with the Connecticut Mirror last week, ahead of its publication on Tuesday. The report was also shared with the governor and lawmakers.
The report largely focuses on the impact from policies put
in place under Lamont’s predecessor, Gov. Dannel Malloy, to expand access to natural gas pipelines to hundreds of
thousands of homes and businesses.
“Frankly, we didn’t get a good deal,” said Fred Carstensen,
the director of CCEA and one of the report’s authors. “The expansion of natural
gas led to the kind of development in which we bear the cost, but we got no
benefit, essentially. So that raises the question of why, in the last year or
two years, has there been a discussion of expanding natural gas further in
Connecticut? It didn’t help us the first time around.”
Carstensen wrote the report along with Peter Gunther, a
senior research fellow at the CCEA.
The report comes at a time when several New England
governors, including Lamont, have embraced the possibility of expanding gas pipelines in
order to address the region’s soaring energy prices. Much of their interest has
to do with gas that is burned to fuel power plants, supplying more than half
the region’s power.
Connecticut, like the rest of New England, gets all of its
gas shipped in from other states through pipelines or, to a lesser
extent, by ship. The region’s existing pipeline network operates at
or near capacity, so expansion would be necessary to meet growing demand and
help lower prices, supporters say.
In a statement on Tuesday, Lamont called the report a
“timely and important study,” but did not renounce his past support for an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that includes
natural gas.
“Lasting affordability cannot be achieved through volatile
fossil fuels alone, and the green energy technologies outlined in this report
will drive down electricity costs while positioning Connecticut as a leader in
the clean energy economy,” Lamont said.
He continued, “My administration remains committed to growing Connecticut’s
green economy, especially by strengthening offshore wind, to build a cleaner,
more resilient grid, reduce our dependence on gas, and deliver long-term rate
relief for Connecticut families and businesses. The only sustainable path to
lower rates and greater energy independence is a diverse, locally sourced
energy portfolio.”
Natural gas consumption in CT
Rising demand for natural gas has exacerbated Connecticut’s
energy issues and led to higher prices, the CCEA report argues.
Between 2012 and 2024, total consumption of natural gas in
Connecticut increased by 33%, according to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration.
Power plants were responsible for much of that increased demand. The amount of natural gas burned to create electricity climbed by more than half. And three new gas-fired power plants have been built or expanded in Connecticut over the last decade, the report noted.
The report argues that because Connecticut is a net exporter
of electricity, it has to bear more of the environmental and health-related
costs associated with pollution from gas-fired plants, while much of the
electricity produced is sent to power homes in states like Massachusetts and
Rhode Island.
In addition, it argues that a reliance on natural gas makes
Connecticut vulnerable to occasional price spikes caused by global events such
as the wars in Ukraine and Iran.
Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of
Conservation Voters, said her organization commissioned the report after
hearing politicians touting more natural gas as a solution to the state’s high
cost of electricity.
“They don’t know how to respond when someone says, ‘My bill is too high, and oh, it must be the renewable energy,'” Brown said. “Part of what this report really is about is to put something out there that shows the data that says no, renewable energy actually is part of the solution and there are different options — and gas, we should not be locked into.”
The report acknowledges some benefits from the shift toward
natural gas in the last decade, most notably the closure of the state’s last
coal-fired power plant, Bridgeport Harbor Station, in 2021.
But other benefits that were once touted as part of the push
for more natural gas — such as ending the reliance on fuel oil to heat homes
and businesses — have not come to fruition.
The share of Connecticut homes that rely on oil as their
primary source of heat has fallen
by around 18% in the last decade, according to U.S. Census data. But
the data indicates that much of the shift over that time period has been toward
electric heating, while the number of homes relying on gas has increased only
slightly.
Carstensen said that is likely because the cost is
prohibitively expensive for most homeowners to connect to the nearest gas
distribution line. An incentive program that began under the Malloy
administration to help people pay for gas connections ended in 2022, after falling far short of its original
goals.
Instead of delivering more gas to homes and businesses, most
of the increase in gas usage over the last decade went to fuel investments in
power plants, the report argues. Those plants, in turn, necessitated the
construction of new power lines to carry electricity over long distances, with
the costs passed along to customers through their monthly electric bill.
The current state of natural gas expansion
The report did not address any specific proposals to expand
or build new gas pipelines in Connecticut. Proponents of expansion argue that
the supply of gas flowing through pipelines into Connecticut has not kept up
with rising demand, causing prices to increase.
The Lamont administration is currently reviewing permits for
a proposed compression-only expansion of the Iroquois Pipeline that crosses the
state and underneath Long Island Sound before delivering gas to New York. The
project, which requires the development of a new compressor station in the town
of Brookfield, has attracted
intense local opposition.
The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection is scheduled to issue its final decision on the permits for the
project later this month.
A second, even bigger expansion project was put forward last
month by the owners of the Algonquin Pipeline, which cuts diagonally across
Connecticut on its way from New York to the rest of New England.
The proposal, known as Project Beacon, could end up
increasing the system’s overall capacity by about 10% according to the
Algonquin Pipeline’s owner, Enbridge. The company is currently in the process
of gauging demand for the expansion from gas utilities and power plants, before
submitting the project for regulatory approval.
Melissa Sherburne, a spokeswoman for Enbridge, said that if
it is approved, the project could save the region up to $2 billion a year in
energy costs by 2030.
“For many years, the Northeast has faced energy costs that
are significantly higher than the rest of the country, particularly during very
cold winters and hot summers when demand is at its highest,” Sherburne said.
“These price swings place real pressure on families, small businesses, and
local economies. Project Beacon seeks to provide relief by improving access to
natural gas supplies located only a few hundred miles away.”
But Connor Yakaitis, the deputy director at CTLVC, said the
region’s struggles with high energy costs weren’t simply the result of stagnant
supply and rising demand.
“I think there’s more at play with rising costs, especially
in the last year or two,” Yakaitis said, pointing specifically to the ongoing
impact on fossil fuel prices from the war in Iran. “Is it worth investing in
the infrastructure — and the time that it is going to take to build that
infrastructure — for something that is historically very volatile?”
The report on the impacts from natural gas expansion is the
first of two studies that CTLCV plans to release over the next few weeks
regarding Connecticut’s energy future.
The second report — also conducted by economists with
CCEA — will focus on the potential for greener technologies such as
solar, wind, battery storage and geothermal to meet the region’s rising
electric demand by 2050 and beyond, according to the authors.
“The question is going forward, what do we expand?”
Carstensen said. “The historical record says natural gas does not look like a
good strategy for expansion. We’re not saying, ‘Get rid of it.’ We’re just
saying, ‘Let’s see.’ As we get new generation capacity, what is the one that is
the most efficient? What is the one that is going to have the most resilience,
the highest reliability?”
$4M project begins to improve Groton's Sutton Park
Kimberly Drelich
Groton — Drew Hasson, a resident and skater, said Tuesday
Groton Skate Park at Sutton Park is much more than a recreational facility —
it's a meeting place for the community.
"I’ve seen people make friendships here," he said.
"I’ve seen people who have adopted their rescue animals from people that
they’ve met at the skate park. I've seen lovers meet for the first time at this
skate park, and I've seen beginners at all levels who come here: they have fun,
they fall, they get up, they have fun, they repeat the process as
necessary."
Hasson is looking forward to seeing how it will look once a
renovation project at Sutton Park is complete.
Members of the skating community, local and state officials
and town staff gathered Tuesday at Sutton Park, off Fort Hill Road, for a
groundbreaking ceremony to officially mark the start of the yearlong
construction project.
"Today marks the beginning of the transformation that
will bring a renovated skate park, a new restroom facility, multi-use path, new
playground, and a second basketball court that will serve residents of all ages
for years to come," Mark Berry, director of Parks and Recreation for the
Town of Groton, said during the ceremony.
"Five years ago, a group of young skaters came before
the Town Council with a simple and powerful message," Berry said.
"They asked the town to invest in the skate park and shared how important
the facility was in their lives."
He said one skater described the park as "concrete
therapy" and "a place that provided not only recreation, but also
community confidence, and a positive outlet."
"Their passion, advocacy, and willingness to speak up
helped inspire the vision we are celebrating today," said Berry. He also
thanked previous and current town councilors, and Representative Town Meeting
members for their commitment to the project and for recognizing the value of
investing in public spaces that strengthen the community.
Town Mayor Juliette Parker added, "This was a project
that we all collaborated on together. This is what community is all about: to
make sure that we are helping each other out. This was a long time coming, and
I'm glad that this is going to be done."
During the ceremony, skaters and officials ceremonially
lifted piles of dirt with golden shovels to mark the project's start.
The renovation project represents an investment of nearly $4
million in one of the community's most important public spaces, said Berry. The
funding is from a variety of sources, including a Community
Connectivity Grant, the American Rescue Plan Act, and town Capital
Improvement Program funds.
Berry explained the project will improve and expand the
skate park, which is designed for skateboarding and
in-line skating, and remove some of the fencing so the skate park is more
open and welcoming. The skate park also will have a new entrance.
The existing playground will be replaced with a bigger, more
nature-based playground.
The renovations include a new seating area, a permanent
bathroom facility, and a second basketball court. Both basketball courts and
the skate park will be lit.
A multi-use bike trail will connect to an existing multiuse
path on Route One and also connect over to Midway Oval, making a connection to
the neighborhood, Berry said.
The construction is currently anticipated to be completed by
June 2027, he said.
Berry said once the project is complete, he thinks it will
transform the neighborhood.
"It's going to be a welcoming park for all ages and all
interest groups," he said.
State commits $2M to Newington town center plan as HHC vacates 50-acre campus
Connecticut has awarded Newington $2 million to fund the
first phase of a town center revitalization effort covering nearly 90 acres,
as Hartford HealthCare departs from the sprawling campus.
The state Bond Commission approved the grant on May 29,
directing the funds toward infrastructure improvements identified in a master
plan the town adopted earlier this year.
The plan envisions a walkable, mixed-use town center rebuilt
around two large underused or vacating properties — the former Keeney
Manufacturing site on Main Street, where a developer has already proposed a
244-unit mixed-use complex, and Hartford HealthCare’s roughly 50-acre
campus, which the
health system has been winding down in recent years.
The HHC parcel is the largest single site in the study area.
The town’s master plan consultants, Camoin Associates and Colliers Engineering & Design, flagged the campus as
offering what they described as “significant redevelopment opportunities at a
scale distinct from the town center’s existing development pattern.”
For the Keeney property at 1170 Main St., plans are further
along. Manhattan-based Stillman Development has proposed
a 244-unit mixed-use project it is calling Town Square and Garden,
featuring 47,750 square feet of retail, a 21,500-square-foot performing arts
theater and 658 underground parking spaces.
The project, designed by Spivak Architects, is currently in
pre-application review with the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
The second covers the Lowrey Place and Northwood Plaza
corridor, which consultants described as car-dominated and at risk of further
decline without a strong anchor use.
The third is the former HHC campus, where residents told
consultants they want commercial or mixed-use development along Constance Leigh
Drive and outdoor recreation with trail connections to Cedar Mountain, along
with housing targeted at older adults.
The town has identified roughly $5 million in total
infrastructure improvements needed to support the plan, with the $2 million
bond allocation going toward intersection upgrades, improved sidewalks,
streetscape enhancements, new gateway and wayfinding signage, and the
activation of pedestrian alleyways and gathering places in Constitution Square.