Don’t Panic! This Article Will Get You To I‑95

It’s June 1, and you’re at the corner of College Street and South Frontage Road. You were going to take South Frontage to I‑95 or I‑91 — but it’s blocked off with road construction signs. What now?

Take a deep breath and follow along. You can get there from here.

June 1 is the date that the already-confusing jumble of road detours gets even more confusing. For five months.

There’s a little light at the end of the tunnel: The short-term pain is for a good cause — stitching Downtown and the Hill back together after Urban Renewal and the Rt. 34-highway-to-nowhere cut them apart.

To get to the end goal, the city has had to close exits and re-route traffic while it rebuilds roads. Hence this upcoming June 1 temporary change.

I went on a test drive the other day with city transit chief Doug Hausladen to take the new route step by step in order to explain it for our readers. So here goes:

At College and South Frontage, keep driving one block south to the intersection with Congress Avenue.

Now you can take that left, onto Congress Avenue.

You drive half a block and see that the exit from Congress Avenue onto South Frontage is also blocked off. Don’t worry. Just keep following the detour signs right onto Lafayette Street.

Lafayette takes you to Church Street South, where the highway is again within view. Take a left onto Church Street South.

Now you can take a right back onto South Frontage Road to merge onto State Road 34 East.

Hill-Downtown Bridge

You’ll need this detour between June and November, when New Haven closes two blocks of one of its most heavily trafficked roads.

Specifically, the South Frontage Road closure is part of Downtown Crossing Phase 3, the preparation to build a bridge between Congress Avenue and Temple Street. The whole project is state and federally funded. Phase 3 construction will cost $14 million.

Construction workers have already started building the Hill side of the bridge. By the end of November, the closed stretch of South Frontage will be eight feet higher than it is now, so the bridge will be able to clear tunnel traffic below.

The Covid-19 pandemic turned out to be a boon for the project. Traffic on South Frontage has been lighter, as many previous commuters continue to work remotely. Rush hour is almost nonexistent.

“What we are doing in 20 weeks would have taken years. We opted for a full closure in the time of Covid,” said Hausladen.

Both this low level of traffic and the South Frontage Road closure are once-in-a-career moments for Hausladen.

“You don’t get to redevelop too many roads as a city person. Big stinkin’ roads don’t get rebuilt very often,” Hausladen said.

Hausladen’s goal is for most drivers to detour before they even get to College Street. Drivers coming from downtown can get to the highway via George Street, for example.

And drivers coming from the Hill can enjoy the city’s newest one-block throughway. Before drivers even get to the intersection of College and Congress, they can take a right on Columbus Avenue to head straight to Union Station and U.S. Route 1.

The goal is to create a spiderweb effect, where each road takes on some of the traffic and no road is too full. The new bridge between Congress and Temple will eventually become another strand, shortening the route between the two streets by a quarter mile.

To virtually drive the detour from College Street to State Road 34 East, watch the video below.

Sign up here for the Downtown Crossing e‑newsletter to receive advanced notice of traffic impacts due to construciton.