The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Moving toward morewalkable city
Project to connectmultiuse trails will add3miles to passive recreation
MIDDLETOWN — The public will have the opportunity to hear from the engineering firm charged with creating a design to hook up Middletown’s multiuse trail system near the Cromwell line to Veterans Park.
Once complete, this portion of the city’s Complete Streets Committee vision — the Newfield Corridor Trail, which will unite the Mattabesset Bike Path off Tuttle Road and Veterans Park onWalnut Grove Road— will be a step closer to connecting pedestrians and cyclists to the downtown.
Staff from the Cheshirebased Milone & MacBroom engineering firm will give a presentation to the Public Works and Facilities CommitteeWednesday night. They are expected to reveal the scope of the project, as well as a design for that 3mile portion of the city’s trail system, according to PublicWorks DirectorWilliam Russo.
The $4 million in funding will be paid for from the 2015 parks bond.
“We want everyone to see it, and leave with ideas. We want a lot of community input,” said Russo, who
expects the firm to return quarterly to provide updates.
The Newfield Corridor Trail will allow hundreds of students in highdensity residential neighborhoods to bicycle or walk safely to Lawrence, Keigwin and Spencer elementary schools, as well as Middletown high, according to John Hall, executive director of the Jonah Center for Earth and Art and Complete Streets member.
Users will travel under Route 3 by way of the short path alongside the railroad tracks between Berlin and Newfield streets.
Once complete, those using the system will be able to access Main Street by picking up the existing bike trail, which goes along the Mattabassett River, crosses Westlake Drive, and continues via a wide sidewalk to Smith Street and the end of Tuttle Road.
The city won’t have to acquire property or easements to complete the route, because it has the right of way through the sanitary sewer system, Russo said.
His crews just finished up the Long Lane multiuse trail near Wesleyan University’s athletic fields. Russo said he’s received countless emails, phone calls and verbal compliments from those using it.
Also, the road work now underway on Kaplan Drive at the entrance to Lawrence school will include a tiny portion of the recreation trail to get that ready for eventual connection, Russo said.
The 3mile section, added to 4.5 miles of the existing Mattabessett and Westlake bike paths will complete nearly 8 miles of the proposed 18 mile Air Line Trail – Farmington Canal Connector Route, a regional project involving Portland, Meriden and Cheshire that the Jonah Center has been spearheading.
About a third of that 22.5mile route been built, and a third has been planned and/or is in the design phase, with parts in Meriden, Portland and Middletown. “This is Middletown’s part of that,” Hall said.
“If all these other sections get completed, of that 22.5 miles, there’s only 5.5 still needs to be planned and designed,” he said.
“It’s very exciting to begin the route designation, because this is going to provide a very important connection to all those residences in the Westlake area and a point close to downtown.
“It would also connect people to the rail line in Meriden, in addition to providing a thruway to connect the Airline Trail to the Farmington Canal Trail. It would also provide an alternate route for the East Coast Greenway, which moves from Key West, Florida, to Eastport, Maine.
In Connecticut, the Greenway makes its way through Simsbury to Hartford and Bloomfield, then picks up Hop River Trail in the Manchester area, Hall said.
A bill passed during this most recent legislative session will allow the state Department of Transportation to study the route.
The connector route would provide many benefits, according to the Jonah Center.
“It would enhance existing shorter walking and cycling trails by greatly increasing the accessible mileage of each. Bicycle travel for school children and bicycle commuters would be vastly improved.
“It would provide a bike route to the commuter rail hub in downtown Meriden, which cyclists could use to travel to New Haven, Hartford or Springfield and beyond.
“It would connect the Air Line Trail with the East Coast Greenway at two locations (Cheshire and Willimantic), thereby creating a 111mile bike trail loop around the greater Hartford area. Such a facility would be sure to attract recreational bicyclists from a large surrounding area,” according to the Jonah Center.
All these multiuse trail systems throughout Middletown are heavily trafficked by residents, Russo said.
“It’s a great, great thing for Middletown. You see the amount of people using the 1mile loop at Pat Kidney Field. We made it petfriendly, there are mothers with strollers, joggers, every facet of the city using them.
“It’s a home run for the city any time we invest in the multiuse trail system,” Russo added.
The Public Works and Facilities Commission will meet Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Room 208 of City Hall, 245 deKoven Drive, Middletown.