An article appeared in the New London. CT "The Day" newspaper recently about the long stalled Route 11 Highway.
The FEIS was completed in 2007, and they were supposed to start more study on the enviromental issues talked about in the FEIS before the FHWA issued a ROD.
However, a year ago the state said it would start the enviromental study and start preliminary engineering work but that has yet to begin! What is the hold up?
At the same time, a Route 11 Greenway commission working to build a bike and pedestrian path on either side of Route 11 is awaiting its own study.
The Commission is waiting for CTDOT to sign off on a scope of services that describes the study's purpose. That would allow the study to begin. The scope was submitted in mid-June and the commission asked for a late-June deadline to sign the papers. However, the DOT gave a dealine in August but the commission members are wondering why it's taking so long...they feel the signing of the papers is a simple step.
Officials say, Work on the Route 11 mitigation plan and preliminary engineering are delayed for a few weeks because of retirements within the DOT.
Full article at theday.com search: Route 11
DOES THIS SEEM STUPID TO YOU? OTHER STATES COMPLETE THE FEIS AND START THE PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING AND OTHER STEPS IN A MATTER OF YEARS. CT HAS SPENT TWO YEARS ON STARTING A STUDY. IT TAKES CT 10 YEARS WHAT OTHER STATES CAN COMPLETE IN 5 YEARS.
Sounds like they're stalling for some reason. Maybe they're trying to time this so that it hits final design around the time of the next stimulus package? If they keep going now it's not "shovel ready" so it would have to be state-funded to a significantly higher degree.