The fear of actually solving the route 7 corridor traffic congestion must drive State Senator Judith Freeman-R and State Rep Toni Boucher-R to fits. Why else would a zero dollar funded study proposal send them into lame quotes like these:
State Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, worked to include the study - which did not include a request for funds - because he said traffic continues to worsen as commuting increases from northern suburbs into Stamford and Norwalk.
It took the Senate several hours to pass a Democrat-backed $3.2 billion bond package on a 21-12 vote that fell along party lines. The House passed the bill on a mostly party-line 84-38 vote shortly before midnight.
Opponents of the Super 7 study said they were confident it could be removed later when the General Assembly meets for another special session.
The proposed four-to-six lane super highway connecting Interstate 95 in Norwalk to Interstate 84 in Danbury has gone nowhere in the legislature for more than 50 years because of opposition from environmentalists and residents of Wilton, Redding and Ridgefield.
The bond package calls for a state Department of Transportation study of the Route 7 corridor between Norwalk and Route 33 in Wilton.
The report is to be submitted to the legislature’s Transportation Committee by the end of this year and include an engineering analysis, time frame for completion of the stretch of Super 7 from Norwalk into Wilton, identification of obstacles, cost estimates and potential funding sources.
The study also is to analyze what to do with Wilton land the state has accumulated for the project if Super 7 is never built.
“I thought this was an issue that was clearly put to bed a long time ago,” said state Sen. Judith Freedman, R-Westport, who proposed an unsuccessful Senate amendment to strike the Super 7 language from the bonding bill. “I believe this particular project keeps reviving itself over and over again when it has been told that it’s going nowhere.”
State Rep. Antoinetta “Toni” Boucher, R-Wilton, a longtime critic of Super 7, was optimistic that the study could be quashed later this year.
Boucher called Duff a “political opportunist,” for adding the study into the bonding bill at the 11th hour.
The 11th hour? How about all these years when Boucher killed studies and solutions to route 7 in many previous years? It’s about time that the legislature stops catering to bucolic idealists and starts realizing that north western part of the state and the southwestern part of the state should be part of the greater tri-state economic corridor.
Trucks, cars, trains, transportation friendly housing, commutes and property taxes all impacted by the ability of the legislature to govern for the future, not by clinging to out dated and antiquated ideas about what bedroom communities of the 50’s want.
Norwalk is planning to build millions of square feet of office and retail space. Where does Freeman and Boucher expect the workers and shoppers to live? It should not take 1 hour to travel 17 miles from Norwalk to Danbury. It’s a good thing that Bob Duff is living up to his promise to work hard to support making Norwalk a better place to live.
source: The Advocate, Super 7 study included in bond package, By Mark Ginocchio, September 21 2007
