Hartford — The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments will receive $2.7 million from the state to fund local road improvements as part of the state's new Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program, which was passed during the 2013 legislative session.

The other funding for southeastern Connecticut was for Essex, which will receive $140,107 in grants under the state's Local Bridge Program.

The money is included in the $10 million in general obligation bonds and $834 million in revenue bonds approved by the State Bond Commission on Friday.

Of the total $844 million, there was $45 million in grants for the state's Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program and $15 million for Connecticut's Local Bridge Program.

COG will accept road improvement applications from municipalities and work with them to prioritize projects for the region.

"I think it is very, very exciting for our region and for the entire state," said James S. Butler, executive director for COG.

Under the new program, it will be the municipalities' responsibility to design the road improvement projects, such as reconstructing roads, building new roads or realigning intersections, as opposed to the state Department of Transportation.

The hope is that the road improvement projects will move more swiftly if municipalities are in charge of the project design, Butler said.

"We view the state as partners, but some of our towns have suggested that it takes too long to approve initial design and final design, and some of our towns always thought they could deliver more quickly," Butler said. "So the DOT responded in a positive way."

The new program also means that the DOT will request state bond funding for municipalities instead of federal dollars. In the past, municipalities have had to spend a lot of money to comply with federal transportation funding requirements, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said at Friday's Bond Commission meeting. This new program allows the state to give grants directly to municipalities and frees up federal dollars for other state road programs, he said.

The hope is that the funding will be provided each year, Butler said. He added that he expected about 10 to 12 road improvement project proposals from the region this year, but COG will not be able to fund all of them with $2.7 million.

The $45 million in grants is expected to create or retain 896 construction-related jobs.

As a part of Connecticut's Local Bridge Program, the Bond Commission allocated $140,107 in grants for Ivory Street, which runs over Falls River in Essex.

j.somers@theday.com