Orange St. connection coming soon

Protected bike and pedestrian lanes included

NEW HAVEN — Residents and city workers soon will be able to walk, bike or drive along a reconnected Orange Street, through the first protected intersection in the state.

The target date for the reconnection from Martin Luther King Boulevard to South Frontage Road is Sept. 9, if the weather cooperates, according to Anna Mariotti of HTNB Corp., the city’s consultant on the Downtown Crossing project.

Most of the work is complete.

“In addition to paving that area, Orange Street and the portions of MLK and South Frontage Road that are immediately around Orange Street, there’s the lane striping,” Mariotti said.

Neither of those jobs can be done in the rain.

New traffic signals are blinking yellow at the two reconstructed intersections.

“When the finishing work is done, those will be in operation and people will be able to drive, walk, ride their bike from South Orange to Orange,” Mariotti said.

There also will be special bike signals to let cyclists know when it’s safe to cross, in separate phases from the standard pedes

‘The point of it is to make it clear to the drivers that they are in a shared-use environment.’ Anna Mariotti,

HTNB Corp

trian signals.

There is a lot of space designed into the intersection between vehicle lanes and bike lanes and raised sections wrapping around the corners. The medians between Martin Luther King Boulevard, the service roads leading to the parking garages and South Frontage Road jut out into the intersection, creating wide spaces between motor vehicles and those crossing from one side of Orange Street to the other. Concrete bollards will encircle the ends of those raised medians.

“It is a very large intersection, so if a pedestrian or cyclist is crossing from Orange to South Orange or vice versa, there are two light phases they have to go through,” Mariotti said. “You hit the button, cross to the first island, then you have to hit another button and cross the rest of the way.”

Reconnecting Orange Street is Phase 2 of Downtown Crossing, which is turning what used to be the high-speed Richard C. Lee Highway, also known as the Oak Street Connector, back into an urban grid.

Phase 1 was reconstructing College Street, making way for 100 College

St., the Alexion building, and the under-construction 101 College St. Phases 3 and 4, which began with closing part of South Frontage Road to raise the roadway, will connect Temple Street to Congress Avenue via a new bridge.

Once Orange Street is reconnected, drivers leaving Interstate 95 for downtown “will come to the first traffic light here, rather than at Church Street, which is what they’re used to,” Mariotti said. The speed limit will be 25 mph and warning signs will let drivers know to slow down.

The lanes also will be narrower, she said. “The point of it is to make it clear to the drivers that they are in a shared-use environment,” she said.

Another feature is there will be no left turns in the intersection, because it is so wide that traffic would get through the light when it turned yellow, then back up across the lanes, blocking vehicles coming from the left.

Mariotti said the intersection will feature a large number of trees and other plantings, some of which have been put in.

While the work is completed, there will be single-lane closures on streets in the area.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media The intersection of Orange Street and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in New Haven, where traffic signals have been installed.

Downtown Crossing / City of New Haven A rendering of the intersection of Orange Street, South Frontage Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard, looking west.