Fight goes on for work on I-95 exits

Despite repeated pleas from residents and local officials, the state has informed the towns of East Lyme and Waterford that it has no intention anytime soon of reconfiguring two exits on Interstate 95 that many consider dangerous.

The first selectmen of those two towns said Wednesday the state Department of Transportation should tackle Exits 74 and 75 at the same time it embarks on repaving and milling work on that stretch - a project, they said, that will only enable traffic to go faster as it feeds into that stretch of I-95.

So far, the first selectmen - Paul Formica of East Lyme and Daniel Steward of Waterford - have been rebuffed in their efforts to persuade the DOT to close the northbound on-ramp of Exit 75 and reconfigure the Exit 74 area to accommodate the diverted traffic.

The DOT is currently planning a "safety improvement project" on a little more than 8½ miles of I-95 between Exit 72 in East Lyme and the Waterford/New London town line.

The agency will mill and repave, add concrete barriers in the center median, replace guide rails, and make bridge repairs. The project will cost $20 million to 30 million and will begin in the spring of 2010, a date that's been pushed back from the original start time of this fall.

The current project stems in part from a public outcry following a tanker-truck crash in November 2007 that killed three people near Exit 75. Despite a flurry of pronouncements at the time, any talk of reconfiguring Exits 74 and 75 to make them safer has fizzled.

At a meeting in January to discuss proposed I-95 improvements, a majority of residents in the audience urged the DOT to focus on the two exits.

Formica and Steward are pressing for the same and met with their latest rejection in an Oct. 23 letter from James Norman, the DOT's Acting Engineering Administrator, that reiterates the agency's plans to focus on the highway work rather than a reconfiguration of the two exits and entrances.

"We're still fighting," Formica said after a meeting of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments Wednesday. The regional council endorses a plan to reconfigure the Exit 74 on- and off-ramps, to widen Route 161 in that area and to widen and replace the I-95 bridge that crosses over Route 161.

The northbound Exit 75 on-ramp does not provide much merge time onto the interstate and dumps drivers onto the highway with less than a quarter of a mile to go before the left-hand entrance to Interstate 395, which results in drivers trying to cut across two lanes of highway traffic.

Some drivers who need to take I-395 get on the highway earlier, at Exit 74, which allows them more time to cut across.

Formica hosted a bus tour of state and local legislators and representatives of U.S. Rep Joe Courtney's office in late August that traveled the sections of East Lyme and Waterford considered dangerous by some.

A developer affiliated with the proposed Gateway Commons project co-hosted the tour. The Gateway Commons proposal, which has received town approvals, includes 425,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space, along with 275 apartments and townhouses, located near Exit 74.

The Gateway developers hope to drum up support for a public-private partnership to improve the area around Exit 74. They've also said they hope the state will consider changing the scope of its plans.

In a letter to Council of Governments Chairman Thomas Sparkman dated Oct. 23, Norman wrote that many of the proposed changes would primarily benefit the Gateway developer and that the agency has no improvements planned for the area.

"The developer's proposal to widen Route 161 mostly accommodates the private development," the letter says. "While there are traffic conditions on Route 161 that warrant improvements, the Department does not have current improvements planned, simply because there are far greater transportation needs in the State, as well as limited funding."

Norman also wrote that widening the bridge should happen when the state widens the highway.

Formica took exception to that conclusion in a follow-up letter he sent to Norman.

Although Norman mentioned that a widening of I-95 is years away, Formica replied that, "Whether the interstate is widened now or ten years from now, should have no bearing on this improvement. If we are truly concerned about safety enhancements in this corridor, the (Route 161) bridge widening must be discussed and included in the solution."

k.crompton@theday.com