Super 7 Dissed By Rell

Apparently the economic vitality of Fairfield County isn’t high on the agenda for Governor Rell. Despite the urging of State Senator Bob Duff, Rell is dodging the Super 7 issue, ignoring the needs of both roads and rails to link Danbury and Norwalk.

Duff said he has urged Gov. M. Jodi Rell to include construction of the Super 7 in her recommendations for infrastructure improvement projects to the federal government.

“If we’re to wisely improve our state’s economic standing, then we must work to reduce our highway congestion problems,” said Duff, vice chairman of the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee, in a press statement Monday. “Fairfield County is one of the main economic drivers in the state of Connecticut, and we cannot expect businesses to take a solid interest in our area, if one of our primary roadways is clogged, dangerous and inhospitable.”

Duff’s request comes as talk of major infrastructure investment builds in Washington, D.C., as part of the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Communities nationwide have prepared wish lists for federal dollars to pay for local projects. Norwalk this week assembled a list totaling $175 million to be submitted to Washington via the United States Conference of Mayors.

A spokesman for Rell’s office, while saying that the governor will submit her list also, indicated Tuesday that Super 7 will not be on that list.

“The governor is still in the process of putting together the list of shovel-ready projects, and the criteria, we understand … is shovel-ready means that all permits and approvals have been finalized, that all local, state and federal requirements have been met, and that there be a final design for the project,” said spokesman Chris Cooper. “Super 7 does not meet any of those requirements right now. In addition, there isn’t community consensus that the project should be built.”

Cooper said competition for the federal dollars will be intense. As such, Rell intends to put forward for federal funding shovel-ready projects that will create jobs and have immediate benefits, according to Cooper.

Duff rejects that Super 7 isn’t shovel-ready. He said approximately 1,000 acres of right-of-way land currently owned by the state could be “fast-tracked for construction,” if the project is included as part of a federal plan for infrastructure investment.

While discussed for decades, Super 7 ground to a halt in the face of planning, regulatory approval and other hurdles, as well as opposition from Wilton and other communities in its path.

Duff said the federal government’s interest in infrastructure investment “gives us a golden opportunity to finally get this project off the ground.”

“Route 7 has the potential to be the most direct and safe route between upper and lower Fairfield County,” Duff said. “Small improvements are counterproductive; our economic viability depends on this roadway’s completion.”

In his press statement, Duff traced talk of the expressway to 1955, when the Connecticut Highway Department began planning improvements to the Route 7 corridor. Two years later, the state announced that the existing Route 7 would be expanded from two to four lanes, between Norwalk and Danbury, and estimated that the project would be done by 1962, according to Duff.

source: The Hour, Duff wants Super 7 on Rell’s infrastructure projects, By ROBERT KOCH, 12/16/2008

  • Barnstorm

    Maybe Gov Rell should be forced to drive through Wilton until such time as she sees the light at the end of the tunnel. At least she’d see where 85% of the State’s traffic cones have gone.

  • Driver/Pedestrian

    Thank God Duff has the balls to keep plugging for rt.7. A few litigious rich folk in Wilton have sacrificed economic health of a whole region for their own self-interest. The irony is that Wilton is now a traffic nightmare, and will be even after the Rt. 7 widening that destroyed an historic road. Boucher has been useless for transportation. We need super 7 AND a double electrified rail line to Danbury to establish a 21st century quality of life for ALL CT residents.

  • Ysbub

    They’ve been talking about this Super7 since before I was born I think… It’s never going to happen. How long did it take to get the 2 miles that we have now? It’s not just the Wiltonites, besides, they have plenty of development going on in their town. It’s the environmental tree hugging whack jobs that will never let it go through. Thanks for trying anyway Duff.

  • Anon 11

    #3, think again. It’s not the Wiltonites, nor the tree huggers who are stopping this.

    Humm..could it be a group of office building owners in Stamford who realize that opening up Danbury to lower Fairfield residents may cut into their bottom line?

  • Observer

    The reason Wilton is/has been such a mess during this widening of the road project is BECAUSE of the way Wilton residents have spent the past 40 years standing in the way of the progress of Super 7!! This is the state’s way of paying them back for all their court cases, objections and appeals.

    And they deserve every delay, every construction blockage and rerouting, every loss of parking spaces, front lawns, and setbacks that the state can take away from them. If it wasn’t for Wilton, Super 7 would have been a done deal DECADES ago. And dozens of families would still have their loved ones with them – loved ones who were killed in accident upon accident which were caused by the constant delays forced upon the rest of Fairfield County by Wilton residents. Children without parents, people without spouses, brothers without sisters and sisters without brothers, all can be laid directly at the feet of NIMBY Wilton residents.

    Whatever Wilton is “suffering” now can never make up for the suffering others have gone through after losing loved ones in auto accidents CAUSED by Wilton’s unwillingness to allow Super 7 to be built. That single fact alone is worth having to deal with all the construction BS.

    Wilton residents should be hanging their heads in shame.

  • MrBozak

    But if we built super 7 then the Wilton and Ridgefield police would have to go back to harassing the kids instead of pulling over every suspect vehicle. And lets not forget the tow-truck drivers of Wilton.
    On the brightside accidents and court volume would reduce. And why would we want that?

  • Al Raymond

    Heres a thought, Norwalk should sue the state of Connecticut for displacing all the people that loss there homes and for all the business that lost there lively hood and for all the PARK LAND that was lost all for a road to NOWHERE.I never could understand why the people of Norwalk let the state build this road in Norwalk and then not make them finish the job. This road is needed and it should have been done 30 years ago.So I say we should all get behind Bob Duff and finally push to get this super 7 completed.This would help Norwalk with all the development that is perposed one would think that the developers would what this done as much as anyone.