DANBURY — At a brief, windswept press conference staged at the I-84 Exit 2 Welcome Center January 22, Governor Dannel P. Malloy said widening Interstate 84 in both directions through Danbury is critical for economic growth in western Connecticut, as well as easing rush-hour traffic along that heavily congested section of the highway to improve quality of life.

The governor, joined by Department of Transportation Commissioner James Redeker, noted in a post-event release that the I-84 corridor through the western part of the state carries more than 125,000 vehicles on an average weekday, resulting in busy morning and evening peak hours.

“Congested roads are bad for business and bad for families — and we need to fix them. They make us less attractive for businesses and force us to spend dozens and dozens of hours away from each other. This is all part of the dialogue about whether Connecticut wants to have a best-in-class transportation system,” Gov Malloy said. “Widening I-84 in Danbury is a common sense solution and part of our long-range vision to rebuild our transportation infrastructure through the middle of this century.”

The governor stressed that he was not coming to the western edge of the state to just talk highways and bridges, however.

“It’s not simply about highways and bridges, it’s about increased bus service in the Danbury region and a more modern service, it’s about improvements in service to the Danbury [rail service] line,” Gov Malloy said.

Recalling that an I-84 with primarily two lanes was sufficient to handle the amount of traffic that traversed the state when he was a child, the governor noted that today, “it connects three cities with a population of 100,000 or more — Danbury, Waterbury, and Hartford.”

 Gov Malloy observed that significant areas of the interstate are congested during peak rush hour times, but during the summer months, especially on Thursdays and Fridays, increasing traffic congests many parts of the highway throughout the entire day.

“I said in my inaugural address that [84] needs to be widened to three lanes in its entirety for the proper flow of traffic,” Gov Malloy said.

He joked that residents have been complaining about traffic and transportation issues for a long time, but regardless, he is committed to proposing a vision that encompasses what it will take over the next 30 years to improve state transportation networks, to see if taxpayers are interested in supporting it.

Gov Malloy will spell out his vision for Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure when he delivers his budget address to the General Assembly next month.

“It will require a ramp-up in budgets beginning almost immediately,” the governor said, adding that he will begin exploring public-private partnerships among several ways of accomplishing his goals.

Asked about the prospect of tolls coming back to state highways like I-84, Gov Malloy was quick to respond that there are many ways to pay for transpiration improvements, and “tolls are just one of them.”

“Right now, do people want to have a transportation system that costs our economy $4.2 billion a year with no return, or do they want to invest in a system that will cut down that wasted cost substantially, [along] with taking 42 hours of wasted congestion time out of the system?” he responded.

Pressed for potential costs and where the money would come from, the governor said in the moment, he is focused on completing the report he is planning to deliver before his budget presentation.

“We’ve already increased construction financing by 65 percent in the two budgets we produced in Connecticut. It tops the ramp-up under Governor O’Neill when we had bridges falling down,” Gov Malloy said.

The governor said, “Everything in our plan will be a priority.” And it will be up to lawmakers and residents to decide what improvements will be made, whether it is highway and rail improvements, or trail systems and bikeways.

Responding to The Bee’s question about enhancing regional rail services, the governor said the top priority is enhancing “commutation.”

“Reestablishing service through New Milford would be a priority,” he said.

Mr Redeker said planned investments will enhance both commuter and freight rail networks in northwestern Connecticut.

On the subject of premature delamination or surface deterioration of state and local road surfaces and materials that has come up as an issue in presentations by local Highway Department officials, the commissioner expressed confidence in both the integrity of state purchased materials and the road surfaces themselves.

“A piece of what we’re looking at is the condition of and the asset management review of our highways and state roadway systems,” he said. “We haven’t seen the type of deterioration you’re talking about.”

Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley and First Selectman Pat Llodra have both openly discussed concerns about how quickly surfacing materials have been deteriorating after being applied locally. Both have suggested putting off major road construction until officials get to the bottom of whether it is the construction materials themselves, or other issues like environmentally safe ice melt chemicals that are to blame for the phenomenon.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) is now focusing on widening a five-mile section of the highway between Exits 3 and 8 in Danbury and Bethel, where significant chokepoints develop on a daily basis on I-84 in that region of the state.