Debate over plan to sink Interstate 95 rages on

Proponents say it will connect the city to its waterfront, but feasibility and cost are serious concerns.

On Thurs., Sept. 17, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) unveiled the results of a nine-year study which focused on the feasibility of sinking Interstate 95 (I-95) underground in order to reconnect New Haven with its harbor. Supporters of the plan see it as a tool for urban renewal. But many worry that the benefits of the plan won't outweigh its costs.

I-95's completion in 1960 created an efficient and cost-effective means of transportation. The highway's constuction, however, split the city in two and spelled disaster for neighborhoods which were razed to free space for construction. Plans to lower the highway would, if enacted, reconnect downtown to the harbor. Many argue that the harbor remains the city's greatest asset, and some are willing to pay the $500 million needed to reclaim it.

"The highway has been the Great Wall of China separating the city from the harbor," Yale forestry and environmental studies professor Emly McDiarmid said of I-95, which runs through the city's Long Wharf and the railroad corridor. Advocates of the plan argue that it would allow the city to capitalize on its greatest aesthetic asset as well as promote business and commerce.

"Recapturing the harbor is vital in the long term for [city] economic development to take direction," Ward One Alder Julio Gonzalez, CC '99, said. City officials argue that the project would not only connect downtown to the waterfront, but be a boon to neighborhoods like the Wooster Square area. "New Haven is already a very divided city, with its two rivers and many bridges," Michael Kuczkowski, Mayor John DeStefano, Jr.'s spokesman, said.

The New Haven plan is modeled on attempts in other cities to lessen the effects of waterfront interstates. Boston and Hartford are pursuing projects that will reduce the prominence of their waterside expressways, while Philadelphia and Duluth, MN, have depressed sections of interstate in order to accomplish this goal.

The city's plan would widen and sink below ground the section of the highway between Canal Dock Road and Howard Avenue. Over the lowered highway, two decks would be constructed to allow pedestrians and bikers access to waterfront facilities. The depressed section would be widened from six to eight lanes in order to alleviate traffic. Other proposed changes to ease traffic include the reconfiguration of southbound Exit 46 at Sargent Drive. Sargent Drive itself would be rebuilt as a four-lane, two-way road, allowing Long Wharf Drive to serve only as an access road.

It's the logistics of this construction plan that have the state's DOT up in arms. Diane Weaver of the DOT's Office of Environmental Planning cited multiple concerns. She pointed to high maintenance costs--estimated at about $14,000 a month--that would seriously undermine the benefits of sinking the highway.

In addition, the DOT worries that the depression of the highway, which currently serves as a buffer to protect nearby businesses from flooding, would leave these businesses vunerable.

Added to these problems is the project's hefty $500 million price tag--a cost that the entire state of Connecticut would have to pay. Since the project only targets the city, the key question is whether suburbanites are willing to pay.

"The direction of downtown economic development, the health of the mall slated for development at Long Wharf, and the prospects for greater regionalism are the political `tectonic plates' that will determine how the project is perceived by suburban dwellers," Gonzalez said.

Kuczkowski stressed that the Quinnipiac Bridge crossing needs to be rebuilt to handle heavy traffic anyway. With the depression plan, these traffic problems could be solved in a way that gives people access to the pier.

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