Prodded by City Hall, state transportation experts have come up with a preliminary $7 million plan to widen a congested stretch of Farmington Avenue.
“That’s an area of town that definitely, definitely needs to be addressed,” said Mayor Art Ward.
Ward said that the congestion on the eastern end of Farmington Avenue poses “a great impediment” to the flow of traffic in town.
To provide for two eastbound lanes between Boardman Street and the Farmington town line would cost about $5 million and another $1.6 million to repave it, according to an October 2007 letter from John Carey, manager of traffic engineering for the state Department of Transportation.
The growing traffic tie-ups in the area are caused by the rapid development along Farmington Avenue, including Wal-Mart, Home Depot, L.A. Fitness and expansions to older shopping plazas.
In a February 2007 letter to the city, Carey said that Bristol “continues to encourage large and small scale development along the Route 6 corridor without a plan to address” right of way limitations and traffic congestion.
Ward said that an extra lane could be added without taking any of the buildings lining the roadway.
He said that a city street could be constructed behind the houses that stretch along the south side of Farmington Avenue between Stafford Avenue and Britton Road in order to give those residents easy access to their homes.
Ward said that he’s pushing for U.S. Rep. John Larson, the East Hartford Democrat whose 1st District includes Bristol, and state lawmakers to secure the necessary funding.
Police Lt. Kevin Morrell, who heads the traffic division, wrote in a recent memo to the mayor that there is “a great deal of interest” among the politicians in pushing the project along.
The next step is to find the funding for the transportation department to prepare a detailed blueprint for the project, according to Morrell.
State officials said that getting the money is “the main issue at this point,” Morrell said.
The Route 6 Business Association favors the project, Morrell said.
Morrell said that after watching traffic in the area, he sees an “obvious need” for an extra eastbound lane.
Click here for a PDF of memos and correspondence about this project.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
29 comments:
If Ward gets the state to widen Route 6, he gets my vote for eternity.
It's worth noting that State Senator Colapitro stated somewhat recently that there's nothing that can be done to improve the traffic flow on Farmington Ave.
Another project that was started way before Ward took office: he just gets to reap the benefits.
5:14pm - well, it's quite obvious that while it might have been known, no one took the time to have it " MOVE-FORWARD." Eat your shorts fool....
So Colapietro won't help with this project? That's just great.
Please don't tear up anymore Bristol roads until Route 72 is done. Bristol is a traffic jam as it is.
Don't you mean LA fitness? Not Planet Fitness
9:31
IT WAS being worked on and progress WAS being made.
Resolution just happened to occur while Wardie was sitting in the chair.
But then, thats Art, being there for the "photo-op".
318 the statement was made in the context of the current road configuration and not that it could not be fixed if you wanted to expand the roadway further. But were are we getting the money its all gone to the corp. thiefs
11:17 - You're right, of course. Thanks.
....and who said Ward isn't moving things forward??? GO MAYOR!!!
"Another project that was started way before Ward took office: he just gets to reap the benefits."
Hey, they've been looking for a cure for the common cold for years, but the guy who finishes the job and finds it is gonna get all the credit, and rightfully so. Who cares if the project was "started". If Mayor Ward is the one who gets it done, he deserves the credit (and my undying gratitude)....Seems he's keeping his promise and moving Bristol forward!
Again they miss the boat to fix the problem. It's not up by LA and Walmart it's down by Stop&shop, Macdonalds, blockbusters and North Main to Terryville. Sure fix the corner where lee Po is or maybe even knock it down? Use that land for a turning right lane? Hummm take land away from someone for the good of the city? Well we know that wont happen.. How about making all the inlet roads off RT6 one way streets?? Only let people turn onto RT6 from them not stop traffic from RT6 trying to turn into one of thoes roads.. Hummmm tell people who bought homes off RT6 that you need to go around to get home? (brook st, middle street, oakland) Yea that wont happen either. Bristol is a joke
Go back to steves article he mentions feb 2007
you tell me that artie got all that done in less than 3 montyhs.
Gimme a break.
Next he will be taking credit for widening 229.
The man is a phoney
The mayor never claimed that he started this project or that he deserved any particular credit for it. I don't know why people are jumping to conclude that Ward is hogging the glory for it -- which would be odd thing anyway given that it's far from a sure thing yet.
10:12am - don't bother to try to make sense of it steve, these posaters only revel in the negative - has any one of these jeks ever suggested anything other than something negative = bunch of losers - they need to get a life because it is obvious that they have forsaken you and I.
Or maybe it is that they are frustratted with the do nothing politicians in our society who refuse to take a stand on anything and simply occupy the office. They sit back and test the wind before they state an opinion on anything. They don't take on anything new, the don't empbrace any new challenges, etc. When the climate is right, suddenly they are pro union, or .. anti union, or.. green, ,,, or whatever. It is a joke. We are cravng leadership, not a bunch of chickens who are worried about he next election and how their special interest supporters (fundraisers) are going to judge them on their decisions. Politics sucks! All of the loser that are elected in this town sell us garbage each and every time they run and b/c we have little to no alternative we are stuck with them. It is a joke. Let's form a third party - the f#$%ing common sense party! That would be a huge change to have common sense in politics!
Oh yeah, to be more specific, if ou don't think Ward is trying to attach his name to the widening of Route 6 even though he has had nothing to do with it, and is doing nothing right now to promote it other then this press release, you my friend are an idiot!
ANARCHY!!!!
The city needs to push 2 lanes in both direction all the way to Tunxis Community College. Traffic on Rte 6 will always bottle neck where lanes narrow to one.....it isn't a hard concept. Look want happens in front of Insane Irvings heading east or at the intersection on Oakland and Rte 6 heading west. Farmington has two lanes in each direction and they do not have nearly the same amount of retail on Rte 6.
"if ou don't think Ward is trying to attach his name to the widening of Route 6..."
....ou might think so, but I don't. Did uo ever think that maybe he's just looking for ways to make Bristol better? Seeing as he's mayor and all, it's kinda his job.
and what in the article suggested that ward was taking credit for himself for the idea - the timetable only states the fact - that no one else took the steps to try to get it done.
8:53
It is not a question as to whether Ward is trying to make Bristol better, but the point is that he is trying to have people believe that he is the only one that ever did that.
Route 6 is just one example: many people have been pushing that for years, and slowly, making progress. Why does he not ackowledge that?
But the best example is the Skate Park.
He gave NOBODY credit for that. Not Couture, not Zoppo, not Stortz, not Swicklas and the Park Board.
He invited none of them to take part in the ceremony.
Frankly, this is eroding his support, which he will be needing, and the employees are not happy campers.
He will be his own undoing.
The timetable IN THE ARTICLE makes it clear that Mayor Stortz actually got this rolling. On the other hand, there is NOTHING in the story to suggest Ward is hogging credit.
Sounds like some jealous Dems wishing they were mayor. Keep bad-mouthing the top guy and you'll all be out on your butts.
if you were at the opening of the skatepark, you would have heard ward credit/thank the city council, the park board, the park revitalization committee and the employees and staff of the park department for all of their efforts for the skate park.
2:28- that's the problem, egos get in the way of what is supposed to be something good for everyone, not just these self-centered persons - none of the people that you mentioned were even at the opening so why drag out the ceremony? me and my kids enjoyed the day without all odf the fan fare.
"the point is that he is trying to have people believe that he is the only one that ever did that."
How is he trying to do that? All he said was that he's pushing for widening Rt. 6. He's the mayor. Improving Bristol is in his job description. There was no mention of him looking for a pat on the back or taking all of the credit. It would seem your imagination is working overtime. The point is that he's doing a good job....and it's just irking the hell out of his critics.
7:56
Did the mayor invite or inform any of those people?
Betcha he didn't!
Add a lane to a road ?????
What a change in policy from giving roads away to business folks and eliminating travel lanes , like on North Main Street and the Boulevard .
Gotta love the consistency .....
November 24, 2008 9:52 AM
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Maybe it would be a good idea to remove two lanes in each direction and increase the roadside parking on route 6 . It sure has done wonders in acquiring massive commercial intrest in our downtown .
make a road behind the houses on rt 6 for the residents to have easy access to their properties? WHOSE property is going to take a cut in land to supply this road? we all own this property and dont want any additonal traffic behind our homes in addition to the traffic we have on rt 6 and the corner of stafford ave!!
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