Preliminary work is about to start on a 30-year-old state plan to smooth traffic on Upper Whalley Avenue — just as an 11-year-old girl’s (pictured) death has led “traffic-calmers” to ask for a delay.
The $13 million project will reconfigure intersections and in some cases widen eight-tenths of a mile of Whalley between Emerson Street and the Route 63/69 intersection at the far western edge of town. The goal is to make a heavily traveled, accident-heavy stretch safer for drivers and pedestrians alike, according to the state project manager, Richard Zbrozek.
Zbrozek said any day now a crew will start on preliminary work for the project: replacing a power substation at Whalley near Ramsdell Street (pictured). The “obsolete” station will be replaced by “voltage that already exists on poles,” Zbrozek said.
That work has to happen before crews start on the “parent project,” the road-changing project itself. Zbrozek predicted that would start next April, with the replacement of a deteriorated culvert near the 63/69 interchange. He said the entirely redone Whalley Avenue should be done by Dec. 1, 2010.
Assuming no more delays crop up.
Neighbors want such a delay. Especially in light of the June 5 hit-and-run crash near the Davis Street-Whalley intersection that killed 11 year-old Gabrielle Lee.
That crash brought to the fore concerns that had already been building in Westville about speeding cars and unsafe conditions on Whalley. Westville joined a growing “safe streets” movement in neighborhoods across New Haven calling for “calmer” roads geared more to pedestrians and cyclists than to fast-moving cars.
“People could see a death coming,” said Mary Faulkner, chair of the Westville neighborhood management team. Even before Lee’s death, neighbors were regularly asking at management team meetings, “What about that light?”
Faulkner said the state Department of Transportation (DOT) should delay beginning the Whalley project until neighbors can take a better look at it and offer input. She noted that the DOT plans call for the road to be able to carry more cars.
“Is that what we as residents want?” Faulkner asked. “I would like to public to be more educated about it and have more of a say.”
It’ll get that chance in early July. Responding to the outcry, New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon and State Sen. Toni Harp have organized a public hearing at Edgewood School at which DOT officials and neighbors can discuss the project. (An exact date has not yet been set.)
Dillon said she, too, would like to see a delay in the project’s launch.
“Many people from the community have been weighing in on this. A hearing in New Haven is an exciting opportunity for the community and the city to work together with DOT on practical measures for traffic safety,” Dillon said.
“I did have reservations about the project two years ago, but am reserving judgment
now until we have that conversation. We will be inviting DOT officials to present, and will be working both with the community and city officials. Although I am asking DOT to delay design work, we also need to determine the implications of the utility work they are working on right now… An important question is this: To what extent will that utility work this summer set the design in stone and preclude re-examining other aspects of the design for Whalley?”
Three Decades Already
Zbrozek, the DOT project manager, said in a conversation Monday that he believes the public has already weighed in on the project. He also argued that the design fits in with the concerns of traffic-calmers.
“A lot of people talk like that,” he said when asked about the concerns raised this month in Westville. “They don’t know what we’ve done. We’ve had many public hearings on the subject. We have met with an entourage of officials in the city.
“We do care about traffic-calming. We do care about businesses and on-street parking.”
“I can go back 30 years with the project,” Zbrozek said. Originally planners were less sensitive to the needs of pedestrians and businesses along the road, more concerned about enabling cars to drive faster through a “clear zone.” He argued that has changed as the project was reworked and reworked.
The intersections along this .8‑mile stretch of Whalley have an inordinately high number of accidents compared to the rate at typical intersections, according to Zbrozek. “The goal here is to reduce the frequency of accidents.”
His team’s plans for doing that include:
‚Ä¢ Eliminating the “S”-shaped intersection (pictured) at Whalley and Ramsdell Street and East Ramsdell (where the old Tommy K’s is), and turning it into a straight-through intersection. Right now cars on either Ramsdell or East Ramsdell have to turn right, then left, to go through the intersection (as opposed to turning onto Whalley). East Ramsdell will be relocated slightly sough in order to face Ramsdell.DOT also plans to put in four crosswalks and a walk signal. For the cars on Whalley, it plans to add a left-turn lane to enable other traffic to keep moving through.
‚Ä¢ Putting in all new walk signals, not just at that intersection, but along the .8‑mile strip. Including at the fatal Davis-Whalley intersection. Right now walkers crossing walk with a walk light still have to contend with cars driving onto Whalley at the cross street. (Zbrozek said he doesn’t know enough about the details of Gabrielle Lee’s death to judge what traffic improvements could have prevented. He said he thinks she might have been struck not at the Davis-Whalley intersection itself, but somewhere nearby.)
‚Ä¢ Adding on-street parking through a “cut-out” in front of some apartments on the southbound side of Whalley as cars come near to Dayton. The idea is to create two unquestioned lanes of traffic in each direction from the 63/69 intersection all the way to Dayton, he said. Right now parked cars eliminate one of those lanes in one of those southbound lanes. “A little bit of widening” will occur to make space for the parking cut-out, Zbrozek said.
‚Ä¢ Installing street plantings, which produce a “traffic-calming effect.”
Detailed Maps
In advance of the July hearing, Rep. Dillon sent along maps provided by the state DOT detailing plans for the changes. (The management team’s Faulkner, who has seen them, is asking the DOT to provide maps that are easily for laypeople to understand.) To view the maps, click:
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