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Governor Rell has announced that she is nominating Joseph Marie to be the new Commissioner of Transportation. Marie is currently the director of operations and maintenace for METRO, the Phoenix regional mass transit organization. The nomination must be approved by the General Assembly.
The public finger-pointing over the budget for the New Haven rail maintenance facility could stall other state transportation and public works projects, according to the co-chairs of the General Assembly's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. (See article.)
Activists in Hartford want the DOT to do someting other than rebuild the "Aetna Viaduct" in Hartford. The elevated section of I-84 will need to be rebuilt sometime in the future and they are looking at burying it, re-routing it or turning I-84 into a boulevard. (See article.)
It’s easy to criticize the highway now. The original plans were to have a ring road carry most of the traffic away from the downtown. That’s why a full interchange was not built for the intersection of I-84 and I-91 in downtown Hartford until much later. But suburban voters blocked the ring road and now everyone drives through the city.
But, as usual, the real issue will be money. Rebuilding the elevated highway will be expensive. Burying it will increase the project costs by an order of magnitude. Our current funding sources are inadequate. Federal dollars are uncertain. Connecticut will have to look at new ways to fund transportation projects: electronic tolling, public-private partnerships, etc.
The Hartford Courant has an editorial recommending increased funding for the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (click here).
The DEP has suffered like the DOT from the twin maladies of inadequate funding and staff attrition. It's about time that both agencies get needed attention. Failures of these agencies have hurt public safety and damage the economic competitveness of the state.
