I-95 Upgrades for Branford Explained

Big changes are coming to the I-95 service plazas in Branford, starting soon.

Both the northbound and southbound plazas are scheduled to close in the coming weeks and will reopen, in about a year's time, with completely renovated and upgraded facilities and new service offerings. Work is expected to begin in early April.

Plans for the plazas were introduced at the Feb. 15 Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting by Paul Landino, CEO of Project Service, LLC. The Milford company won the bid, in 2009, to redevelop and renovate all 23 of the state's service plazas.

The work at the Branford plazas between I-95 exits 54 and 53 are the next step in a state-wide project awarded by the Connecticut Department of Transportation's (ConnDOT) to Project Service and its representative companies. Connecticut's I-95 plazas were constructed in the 1950s and have gone largely undeveloped for a number of years.

First Selectman Anthony "Unk" DaRos invited project representatives to give a
show-and-tell presentation of its plans for Branford during the Feb. 15 Board of Selectmen's meeting.

"They came in about a month ago and informed us that they were going to be doing this work, and I [said] the easier thing to do is come here and let the public know what was going on," said DaRos.

Work in Branford will start within six to eight weeks, according to Landino. He said it was important to note that, in addition to completely renovated and upgraded facilities, the new plazas will be generator-equipped to provide essential services here (fuel, bathroom capacities, and business services) during power outages such as those brought on during last year's tropical storm and fall snow storm.

The Branford plazas are the next to be upgraded on I-95 following a year's worth of work to renovate two plazas in Milford, which are nearing completion now.

"We're getting ready to open Milford northbound in the next couple weeks and southbound in six to eight weeks…and then go on to the Branford projects," said Landino.

The exterior of the properties in Branford will be reshaped to be "picturesque in a sort of a modern maritime-type presentation," as Landino described it.

Plans also call for improving the parking facilities and increasing service offerings. Both plazas will be upgraded to accommodate expanded traffic flow along the Branford corridor and over the new Quinnipiac Bridge (opening in 2016). Each new plaza will also include a State Police sub-station, a state requirement.

The renovated northbound plaza will restore its McDonald's restaurant service, joined by offerings from Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, and a couple of other smaller chains.

The renovated southbound plaza will see bigger changes. The building will be enlarged from a 6,000-square-foot facility to an 11,000-square-foot building. A Burger King will replace McDonald's (by choice of the McDonald's corporation). Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, and a convenience store will help fill out the southbound building's services. Both plazas will have newly installed bathroom facilities.

Project and Design Manager William Fries of Centerplan Construction Company (Middletown) said the renovated southbound plaza will also have better delineated parking lot traffic routes and parking, which it badly needs.

"There's not really a separation for trucks and automobiles today. They both pretty much come to the center of the facility," Fries said, adding that cars will be directed to the front and trucks and buses to the back.

A series of green initiatives is integrated into the design plans for both plazas, from solar panels on canopies over the Exxon gas service areas to "idle-free" truck spaces along perimeters, he added.

"It allows a truck to come in [and] fully shut down, so there's no idling, and [the driver] hooks up to a system that allows him to have, in the winter, heating; in the summer, cooling...[and] also allows him Internet access and data access," explained Fries.

Entrances and exits to both plazas will remain the same and present curb lines will be held so as not to push into any existing green areas. To create safer fueling approaches and exits, a new "dive configuration" will allow vehicles to pull in, park, and pull out, rather than "stacking up" as they do today, said Fries.

In addition to "a full exterior and interior fix" at each plaza, new outdoor water management systems will be installed, Fries said. The system includes new pipes, new sumps in catch basins, and a storm water quality basin to further renovate storm water. The new water management design will also match pre- and post-runoff, so as not to increase any drainage flows to run off the site.

"Many of the systems in there today were put in well back in the '50s, before modern technology for water quality was put in," said Fries.

The project is being done through private funding and Landino praised ConnDOT for being an innovator by supporting such public-private partnerships.

"This is really the quintessential public-private partnership," said Landino, in which "the combination of government and private funds are working together for the public interest, and at the same time a profitable business."