It's been looking like a giant sand and gravel pit since summer, but rest assured that work has been going along at a good clip on the federally funded parking lot expansion at Branford's Shore Line East commuter rail station.

On Dec. 9, Governor M. Jodi Rell announced the parking lot expansion project is on schedule to be completed by spring 2011. The completed project will more than double the available parking spaces at the station, where weekday parking is already at capacity. Commuters who can't find spaces for their vehicles regularly park along the lot's edges.

Funded by $5.4 million in federal stimulus funds and $400,000 in state money, the designated TIGER/American Resource Recovery Act (ARRA) project will add 300 spaces to the current 199-space parking lot. A new bridge is being constructed to give cars access over a tidal stream and into the new lot, which will be elevated above the level of the current lot. The work is being done by Guerrera Construction of Oxford.

A press release from Rell's office stated she toured the station to see the work in progress on Dec. 9.

"Parking availability is one of the biggest headaches for Connecticut rail commuters and this project will go a long way toward alleviating some of that aggravation. On top of that, this is a great example of a project paid for with federal stimulus dollars that has had the direct effect of putting people to work," said Rell.

Shore Line East operates with stops at towns between Union stations in New Haven and New London, carrying about a half-million passengers a year.