Tonight is the big night! The final public meeting with ConnDOT on the Merritt Parkway trail feasibility study is tonight at 7pm in Greenwich (Town Hall Meeting Room, Greenwich Town Hall, 101 Field Point Rd).

Please consider joining the Merritt Parkway Trail Alliance prior to the meeting at 5:30pm for a get together at Cosi (129 West Putnam Ave, Greenwich). The group will discus strategy, letters of support & next steps. Please email molly@greenway.org if you plan to be there. 

If you haven't already submitted a letter of support for the trail to DOT, please consider doing so and forward the template to your friends, family & colleagues (http://www.greenway.org/?attachment_id=4618).  (See more below.)

Let's keep the momentum going. Hope to see you tonight!


Letter of Support Information
Please support the Merritt Parkway Trail. October 3rd is the deadline for comments. If ConnDOT does not have enough people saying they favor, in concept only at this point, a multi-use trail that connects the 8 towns along the Merritt Parkway, this valuable project will die on the vine. 

There are a couple of points that people seem to be confused about:

1. The trail would run along the Merritt Parkway (on average, about 75 feet from the roadway), buffered by landscaping and fencing. It will not be right next to the cars.
2. Supporting the trail at this point means asking ConnDOT to go ahead with the next stage of planning, which includes answering the significant questions we all have about funding, timelines, environmental impact and total cost.
3. There is no financial cost or obligation to take this next step. Support now does not mean "please go ahead and build it."

If you think a connecting trail across Fairfield County would be a good idea then we urge you to send a letter or an email to ConnDOT. We have created a form that will let you email them easily, or print it out and send it by mail: 

Here is the URL to the form to support the trail:
http://bit.ly/parkwaytrail

And this is a link to read more about the trail itself.
http://www.merrittparkwaytrail.org/

A public informational meeting on the Merritt Parkway Multi-Use Trail Feasibility Study on Tuesday, September 16 at 7 p.m. at the Greenwich Town Hall Meeting Room, 101 Field Point Road in Greenwich. 

More information on the study is available at www.ct.gov/DOT/MerrittTrailStudy.  

The CT DOT will hold a public informational meeting in regards to the Merritt Parkway Multi-Use Trail Feasibility Study on Thursday, September 4, 2014 at 7 p.m. The meeting will take place in the Stratford Town Hall Council Chambers at 2725 Main Street in Stratford. 

A public meeting will be held in South Windsor on Friday, June 27 at 8 a.m. to discuss the development of South Windsor Center. 

According to the town, the Planning & Zoning Commission is looking for ways to encourage the evolution of the Town Center into a walkable, pedestrian-friendly place with a variety of uses. 

The meeting will be held at the Council Chambers of the South Windsor Town Hall. The public is invited to join in the discussion. For more information, visit southwindsor.org.

The next public informational meeting for the Merritt Parkway Trail Study is June 24 in Norwalk.

The presentation starts at 7 p.m. in the Community Room of Norwalk City Hall, 125 East Ave.

More information is available here. 

The Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold a public informational meeting regarding the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Extension.  

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at the Cheshire Town Hall, Council of Chambers, 84 South Main Street, Cheshire, Connecticut.  A design presentation will start at 7 p.m. with a question and answer period immediately following.
 
The purpose of this project is to extend the shared use path known as the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail in the Town of Cheshire. The Department is currently designing two sections of the trail.
 
Section 1 – Project No. 25-145: Between Cornwall Avenue and Route 68/70 (West Main Street).
 
Section 2 – Project No. 25-144: Between Jarvis Street and the Southington town line.
 
The Town is also currently designing another section of the trail between Routes 68/70 (West Main Street) and Jarvis Street under Project No. 25-135. The completion of both the Town and State’s designed projects will close the 4.7 mile gap in the trail corridor to provide a continuous 23 mile trail from New Haven to Southington.
 
The project will generally consist of a 12-foot wide paved surface with a 2-foot stone dust shoulder throughout the length of the 4.7 mile gap. A boardwalk section is proposed through much of the wetland area in Section 1 and consists of a 10-foot wide surface.
 
The present schedule indicates that construction is planned for the Town’s section, Project No. 25-135, in 2015; and the State’s design Section 2 in 2016 and Section 1 in 2017.  The estimated construction cost for the state designed project is approximately $4.6 million for Section 1 and $6.0 million for Section 2. Both are anticipated to be undertaken with 80% federal funds and 20% state funds. 
 
The public informational meeting is being held to offer a full opportunity for public participation and to allow open discussion of any views and comments the community may have concerning the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail Extension in the town of Cheshire.
 

The first public meeting for the I-84 Hartford Project will take place on Tuesday, June 17 from 4-8 p.m. at the Hartford Public Library's Center for Contemporary Culture, 500 Main Street. 

The public meeting will be held as an open house to view study area maps and displays with a short presentation about the project by the project team at 5 p.m. and again at 7 p.m.

Monday evening the CTDOT officials provided two detailed plans to restore the pedestrian/bike walkway over Flower Street in Hartford. 

According to the Hartford Courant, one plan contains a skywalk that would start at the corner of Flower Street and Capitol Ave. It would be a 900-foot sloped walkway that would have illuminated handrails. The cost would be $11.3 million and $12.4 million. 

The second plan is being dubbed the elevator plan, which would start near the rear entrance of The Hartford Courant building. It would include a 12'x12' elevator for cyclists and people with disabilities and a large stairway for pedestrians. This would cost $7.6 million to $9.7 million. 

Read the full article here. 

Flower Street Public Information Meeting 
Monday May 12, 2014

PLEASE JOIN DOT FOR A PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING

Potential Options for a
Pedestrian/Bicycle Bridge over
CTfastrak and Amtrak at
Flower St., Hartford, CT 
Monday, May 12, 2014


Open house from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Presentation at 6:15 p.m.
The Lyceum Resource and Conference Center
227 Lawrence Street
Hartford, Connecticut

Residents, business owners, and other interested parties are encouraged to attend, compare project options, and to share their preferences.

The meeting facility is ADA accessible.  If language assistance is needed, please contact the Department of Transportation's Office of Communications at (860) 594-3062 no later than Friday, May 9th.  Efforts will be made to respond to requests for assistance.