Connecticut Maps Out I-95 Work

The Connecticut Department of Transportation has issued a final feasibility study for the 58-mi. corridor of Interstate 95 that runs east from exit 54 near New Haven to Rhode Island. That segment from Branford, Conn., to the state line serves attractions such as Mystic Seaport and the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos, and leads to Providence and Cape Cod. The proposed improvements would enable the more rural eastern part of the Nutmeg State to meet current and future travel demands. The next phase is a more detailed evaluation of environmental, design, and construction issues.

Conducted by Clough Harbour and Associates, a consulting firm based in Albany, N.Y., the study outlines improvements that would cost $45 million in the near term and $1.6 billion in the long term. The near-term improvements - defined as lower cost projects with minor environmental impacts - include intersection improvements, signal upgrades, interchange modifications, and the construction of a concrete median barrier from Old Lyme to East Lyme.

The long-term program envisions bigger-scale projects, including bridge replacements, through 2022. It does not factor in replacement of the three major spans in the segment: the Baldwin Bridge over the Connecticut River, the Gold Star Bridge over the Thames River, and the Groton Reservoir span. The report is available at www.i95southeastct.org.

N.Y.C. Starts $1 Billion Water Plant

Despite lingering legal challenges, construction began late last year on New York City's controversial $1 billion Croton Filtration Plant in the Bronx. The project's general contractor, Schiavone Construction of Secaucus, N.J., recently kicked off an estimated five years of work on the 293-million-gallons-per-day plant in Van Cortlandt Park, said Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

The department is building the plant to comply with a 1997 federal consent decree to treat water from the Croton system, a network of 12 reservoirs and three controlled lakes in Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties. The Croton system, from which the city gets about 10 to 30 percent of its supply, typically generates lower-quality water.

According to the agency, the plant will improve the taste, color, and odor of city water, while also reducing disinfection byproducts and diminishing the threat posed by microbial contaminants. A joint venture of Hazen and Sawyer of New York and Metcalf & Eddy of Wakefield, Mass., designed filtration systems that combine dissolved air flotation, sand or granulate-activated carbon filters, and ultraviolet disinfection.

Community activists have long opposed the plant's proposed location under the Mosholu Golf Course, and the dispute has resulted in four lawsuits seeking to stop construction. One state Supreme Court judge dismissed a suit challenging the city's zoning approach, while another state court judge merged three other lawsuits into one filing late last year. Lead plaintiffs in those suits are: the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, which wants the city to use the alternate method of membrane filtration; Bronx Environmental Health and Justice, which claims the city has discriminated against the minority community in selecting the plant's site; and the nearby town of Eastchester, which argues that the plant's location further downstream denies that municipality any benefit of the filtration function.

Rehab Speeds Tunnel Traffic

Drivers arriving in Manhattan through the Holland Tunnel should find the going easier after a $12 million rehabilitation of the New York Exit Plaza, also known as the rotary. Columbus Construction of Mount Vernon, N.Y., recently completed the 18-month rehabilitation in TriBeCa.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey estimates that the improvements will let drivers move through the rotary 40 percent faster. A key to the improved traffic flow is a new Varick Street exit, the rerouting of another exit path, new signage, improved lighting, resurfacing, and new curbs and sidewalks.