Duff Wants $$$ For Super 7 or Merritt Interchange

from a press release:

SEN. DUFF TO SWRPA: PUT FUNDS TOWARD SUPER 7 OR INTERCHANGE

Formally requests funding be directed away from widening project

Norwalk – In a letter to Southwestern Regional Planning Agency (SWRPA) Executive Director Floyd Lapp today, state Senator Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) asked that the agency direct funds away from the Route 7 widening project in the Town of Wilton and be instead put toward either the completion of the Super 7 Expressway or the Merritt Parkway/Super 7 exchange.

“This letter serves as my formal request,” wrote Senator Duff, who serves as vice chair of the General Assembly’s Transportation Committee.

He continued, “While I am supportive of a multi-modal approach to the Route 7 corridor, I do not agree with funding peripheral projects at the expense of the larger picture—to develop a full, limited access highway that will alleviate traffic congestion, attendant pollution and other quality-of-life issues.”

Currently, a $375,000 study commissioned by SWRPA is being conducted to analyze the corridor. The study, however, does not examine the potential benefits or drawbacks of constructing a four-lane expressway along the route. Instead, it’s looking at widening, shuttle bus options and train station development in Wilton and other transit hubs as well as improvements to encourage safe bicycle use.

“In the past, I have been vocal about my concerns about the large amount of money allocated by the state to just a few miles of this roadway through the Town of Wilton,” Senator Duff wrote. “Today, I believe that it bears repeating in this time of fiscal crisis, citizens of Connecticut need their tax dollars to stretch further.”

For nearly five decades, state and regional officials have planned an expressway to replace the existing US 7 between Norwalk and Danbury. In 1955, the Connecticut Highway Department began planning improvements to US 7 in this corridor.

Two years later, the state announced that the existing US 7 would be expanded from two to four lanes between Norwalk and Danbury, and estimated that the project would be completed by 1962. Except for several stretches, the existing road was never widened.

The Merritt Parkway/Super 7 interchange is a long-anticipated project that would connect Super 7 and the parkway in all directions. It is not only needed for residential use but also for the business community, as a number of Fortune 500 companies are located in the immediate area.

  • parklover

    Good job Bob Duff. The 7/15 interchange completion will get speeding cars off of Main Avenuue, East Rocks, and numerous side streets where drivers seek shortcuts to get to the highways. It is essential to the quality of life for Norwalk residents, as well as helping regional traffic navigate through the area.

    However, a part of me wants to stick it to Boucher and her Wiltonian NIMBY’s by eliminating the existing 7 connector altogether, and turn it into a multi-modal surface boulevard, as New Haven is doing now with the Route 34 highway that ruined its downtown neighborhoods much like the connector did to Norwalk. I would love to see the Wiltonians faces when they realize they can’t speed at 80 mph through Norwalk anymore. Watch them come out and fight for keeping the connector as is, while still fighting the extension of Super 7 in their backyard. I think we would get a big wiff of hypocrisy from the Wilton hills…. And Norwalk would gain hundreds of acres of new land for commercial, residential, and parks to replace the historic fabric that was destroyed by the connector in the 70′s.

    • Norwalker997

      I totally agree with parklover; amazing how many Wilton/Ridgefield residents use the connector, but dont want one in their town.

      • Thirdhand Nosethrottle

        Hey, I’ve got a GREAT idea. Why not set up a toll booth on every access point to the connector that Wilton residents would have to use (like, say, Grist Mill Road entrance?) Make them show their driver’s licenses to verify their addresses, this way Norwalkers will go through for free. Bet we’d have it paid for in 6 months!

  • Gene

    First of all, 350K might get you a flower bed on the side of the road, so let’s get real. Secondly, picking a project that will never ever get done and then acting like you support it strongly to get press is a great way to get publicity, but neither representative of the people nor a sign of any great strategy or intelligence.
    I don’t know what the end goal is here, but there has been a lot of progress made all along Route 7 and this sort of continued incremental progress makes a lot of sense.
    I don’t know anyone that seriously thinks the saviors of Norwalk will be coming south from Danbury. If so, they surely have not made a very good case for it.