Date: Fri 02-Apr-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

DOT-I-84-public-hearing

Full Text:

DOT Seeks Public Comment On Needed I-84 Improvements

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) wants to know what traffic

problems motorists consider need to be corrected on Interstate-84 in the

region.

To discuss that, DOT has scheduled a public session as part of its ongoing

study of what physical changes need to be made to improve traffic flow on

I-84. The study is known as the Interstate-84 Corridor Analysis.

The DOT meeting is slated for 7 to 9 pm, Tuesday, April 6, in the Newtown High

School cafeteria, 12 Berkshire Road.

DOT is conducting a study of Interstate 84, between the Housatonic River and

the New York State border, to document traffic flow problems and recommend

future improvements, such as road widening and interchange reconstruction.

"This planning study is being conducted at the request of the Housatonic

Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO) and will focus on an assessment of

the deficiencies and the needs in the (I-84) corridor," according to DOT

Commissioner James Sullivan.

DOT hopes to complete the study by May 2000. The section of I-84 to be studied

lies in Newtown, Danbury, Bethel and Brookfield. Currently, there are no funds

in DOT's ten-year master plan for I-84 improvement work. It could be a decade

before sections of I-84 are widened as a result of the study.

An advisory panel has been formed to guide DOT in making the I-84 study. The

study's draft recommendations will be presented to the public next fall.

Besides reviewing ways to increase the carrying capacity of the highway and

improving its interchanges, the DOT study will consider how traffic flow can

be improved on local roads along I-84.

The DOT study also will focus on the highway's relationship to the Exit 9 area

of Hawleyville, a section of Newtown that has been targeted for economic

development. DOT considers Exit 9 to have geometric deficiencies which need to

be corrected.

A detailed planning study on economic development scenarios for Hawleyville

through the year 2017 was presented to HVCEO in 1997. The Newtown Planning and

Zoning Commission (P&Z) endorsed that study in April 1998, incorporating it

into Newtown's 1993 Plan of Development.

In its I-84 study, DOT is considering the environmental and social effects of

physically improving the highway. The study will include subjects such as air

quality, noise levels, stormwater runoff, traffic volume, mapping and

bottlenecks.

HVCEO wants I-84 widened to improve traffic flow on the highway and on

adjacent local roads. HVCEO's recommendation to widen I-84 is included in its

1998-2018 Regional Transportation Plan.