State officials are considering a bill that would result in $5 billion in transportation improvements across the state, including the establishment of express bus services from New Haven to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks.
A bill that aims to improve transportation across Connecticut might be a step toward relieving some of the woes that continue to plague commercial real estate in Fairfield County.
“[Transportation in Fairfield County] is a complex problem,” said Gerard Hallock, senior vice president of Albert B. Ashforth Inc. in Stamford.
Commercial real estate experts have long pointed to congestion on Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway as reasons some markets in lower Fairfield County – particularly Stamford – have suffered from high vacancy rates.
“People are saying, ‘I don’t need this,'” Hallock said. “They’re leaving.”
International Paper is one of the businesses leaving the area. The company’s headquarters have been in Stamford since 2001, but last year it announced a relocation to Memphis, Tenn.
Other companies have been vacating lower Fairfield County for locations farther east. Because of high home prices, many employees of companies in Stamford and other nearby towns are forced to move farther north and east, making for an often nasty commute to work. In response, some CEOs have been moving their companies closer to their employees.
The end result is that Stamford is not the hub of business it once was.
“Stamford should really be the business center of Connecticut,” Hallock said.
Although Hartford is the capital and is a thriving insurance center, Stamford’s proximity to New York City used to mean it had a diverse and healthy business base. The city has been pulling out of the doldrums it experienced several years ago, but Hallock said he believes broad transportation improvements would help the city even more.
The bill, which was approved by the Finance Committee earlier this month and has been referred to the Office of Legislative Research and Office of Fiscal Analysis, includes several proposals intended to improve transportation across the state. The legislation calls for them to be completed within 10 years of the bill’s effective date.
One proposal calls for operations improvements to highways that would improve the flow of traffic on Interstate 95 and Interstate 395. There are also several proposals that have to do with the state’s rail system, including one to acquire enough rolling rail stock to add no fewer than 2,000 seats to the Metro North-New Haven Line. Others call for construction or expansion of stations in Bridgeport, New Haven and Stamford, facilities for 1,000 more parking spots and connections to buses and other transit systems.
‘Commitments’ Sought
The $5 billion transportation plan also calls for greater use of state ports and numerous other upgrades. Funding for the plan would come from bonding, several phased increases to the state’s petroleum gross receipts tax and matching federal dollars, according to the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. The CBIA supports raising the new funds and, according to a statement from the organization, “encourages an aggressive exploration of new funding options now available through the passage of the federal transportation funding bill.”
“Connecticut needs to go beyond last year’s $1.3 billion transportation plan and make significant additional commitments to improving our infrastructure,” the statement adds. “Tax dollars need to be levied fairly, used effectively, administered efficiently and protected from being appropriated for other uses.”
Hallock said he hopes to see major improvements on the roads and rail lines in Fairfield County. I-95 has had few improvements since it was built, although the volume of traffic it holds has increased.
“It chokes up traffic,” Hallock noted. “You just can’t continue to expect traffic to flow when you have an increase in volume [without road improvements].”
The situation is similar with the Merritt Parkway. Traffic there is backed up at almost any time of the day, and its two lanes mean that any breakdown leads to a traffic jam. Cars often crawl down the Merritt at 10 miles per hour, Hallock said.
Fairfield County’s successful businesses continue to pay their taxes to the state, but are not seeing the transportation improvements evident in other parts of the state, Hallock said. The highways around Hartford have high-occupancy vehicle lanes to deal with rush hour, but there is nothing like that in Fairfield County.
“They’re not spending [the money] on us,” Hallock said.
Hallock added that he also would like to see more of a focus on commuter trains coming from the north and east and serving Stamford, instead of just serving New York City.
The transportation bill covers proposals across the state. Others include establishing express bus services from New Haven to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, designing and planning for traffic mitigation in southeastern Connecticut – including planning for the extension of Route 11 from Salem to the intersection of I-95 and I-395 – and acquiring rolling rail stock for the Shoreline East Railroad Line to add at least 1,000 new seats.
The plan may need additional funding, however. A report released last week by the Road Information Program – a nonprofit organization that lobbies Congress on transportation issues – said that the current $1.9 billion in federal and state funds that’s currently budgeted will not be enough to achieve the necessary improvements.
Frank Moretti, the organization’s director of policy and research, told the Associated Press that the report found 56 percent of the state’s highways are congested during peak travel times. Without improvements, that number could jump to 81 percent by 2026.
“The state is doing its best to keep conditions from declining, but many of the roads and bridges are getting to a point where they need extensive reconstruction,” Moretti said.
