STAY AWAY FROM I-95
Exit 9 bridge work set to wreak traffic havoc
STAMFORD — It was quiet Thursday on Lenox Avenue, where squirrels ran between the large old trees growing in front of colonialstyle homes nearly a century old.
It was tranquil, too, on Tremont Avenue, except for a half-dozen sparrows squabbling atop someone’s stone wall.
The same was true for Midland Avenue and Hamilton Avenue, where neat hedges and picket fences edge the small lawns. Rhododendrons were blooming, and American flags hung from front porch posts.
By Friday night, however, cars, trucks, motorcycles and whatever else travels on Interstate 95 are likely to clog the streets of residential Glenbrook day and night, with no let up until Monday.
It will happen again next weekend.
The state Department of Transportation is stripping away a dilapidated 1958 bridge on nearby Route
1 and dropping in a prefabricated new one, a $15 million project that will take two weekends.
The bridge spans I-95 near busy Exit 9, so the work will create major disruptions:
Friday, 6 p.m. — Exit 9 onramps, northbound and southbound, close; Route 1 drops from two lanes to one.
Friday, 9 p.m. — Exit 9 offramps, northbound and southbound, close; Route 1 closes between Courtland Avenue and Seaside Avenue.
Friday, 11 p.m. — I-95 traffic will be detoured to two-lane temporary roadways at the Exit 9 onand off-ramps; Route 1 traffic will be detoured along Courtland Avenue, turning right onto curving Hamilton Avenue, and back out to Route 1.
Everything reopens at 5 a.m. Monday.
DOT officials have sent a dire message to motorists for this weekend and next: Don’t go there .
I-95 traffic is supposed to use the temporary roads designed to skirt the construction work at Exit 9, but it will slow traffic on the highway, and motorists could tire of waiting, get off surrounding exits, and turn onto Route 1 and city streets looking for a way out.
State police are anticipating backups on the Merritt Parkway because motorists will be seeking an alternate to I-95. Troopers will be stationed on the Merritt to han
dle the overflow, state police have said.
They also will station two sergeants and 11 troopers at the construction site around I-95 Exit 9.
Certainly Route 1 traffic, and likely some from I-95, will makes its way to Lenox, Tremont, Midland and other side streets off Courtland and Hamilton avenues, if not other parts of Glenbrook.
City Rep. Monica Di Costanzo said it seems that word is out in her District 7, which includes the project area. Churches, businesses, the Glenbrook Neighborhood Association, state Rep. Dan Fox, D-148, and others have been spreading information, Di Costanzo said.
“I’ve seen people verbally reminding people at stores, so word of mouth has helped, too,” she said. “I think people who live here are familiar with what will happen.”
The problem will be with people who do not live in the area, Di Costanzo said.
“My fear is about truckers who get off I-95 and travel around and don’t know where they’re going. They can rip down power lines,” she said. “That happened in the last two months on Glenbrook Road.”
It came up when state transportation officials explained the project to the Board of Representatives a few months ago, Di Costanzo said.
“I told them, ‘Make sure you look at the curve on Hamilton Avenue. There’s not a lot of room there. Please put the troopers where they can tell people — do not get off the highway,’” she said.
Though there will be back-toback weekends of traffic woes, the project is designed to reduce chaos. It makes use of a technique called Accelerated Bridge Construction, in which a new bridge is built near the site of the old one, then moved into place.
Each new 900-ton span is trucked to the site, and the old bridge is demolished as they are installed.
People may walk, not drive, to the work site to watch. State officials have set up a pedestrian viewing area. They also will stream the bridge replacement live at i95exit9.com.
Christie Fountain, president of the Glenbrook Neighborhood Association, said transportation officials attended the group’s March meeting to tell residents what will happen.
“Nobody panicked. But it’s something no one has experienced before,” Fountain said. “I know of one person who plans to walk to the viewing area and watch it. We’ve been posting it on Facebook, and some people are responding, saying, ‘Just stay home.’”
If the bridge were to be replaced using traditional construction methods, the work would take two years and create traffic backups the whole time, state transportation officials have said. Each day, more than 140,000 vehicles use Exit 9, and about 17,000 drive over the Route 1 bridge.
Di Costanzo said she had a question for the transportation officials who appeared before her board.
“I asked if we get reimbursed if a large truck damages sidewalks, curbs, someone’s property,” she said. “I never got an answer.”
Beyond that, the bridge replacement project will bring more than traffic for the weekends that begin Friday and June 7, Di Costanzo said.
“There’s going to be noise. There’s not going to be any relief,” she said. “It will be right next to people’s bedrooms for two weekends in a row. It’s not going to be pretty.”
Transportation and law enforcement officials anticipate traffic on the highway to be backed up for several miles.
In Greenwich, planners of two large events scheduled for this weekend recommend that people take the train into town.
The Greenwich International Film Festival and the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance car show draw attendees from a wide region. The car show will be held Saturday and Sunday in Roger Sherman Baldwin Park in Greenwich; the film festival has screenings and panel discussions throughout the weekend, in Greenwich and Stamford.