Federal Road safety plan to cost $6M
BROOKFIELD — A $6 million plan to improve busy Federal Road is back on track.
The state Department of Transportation will conduct a public information meeting on proposed safety improvements along Route 202 in Brookfield later this month.
The work was among the $4.3 billion worth of transportation projects the state had postponed at the start of this year until funding could be identified.
The project is designed to improve safety and reduce the bottlenecks on the road, where several big stores are located.
“We’re getting traffic jams every Saturday and Sunday along the lower corridor of Federal Road,” First Selectman Steve Dunn said. “That's primarily due to the fact that the road has not been upgraded to address the addition of big box stores — the Kohl’s, the Costcos, the BJs. The road is overloaded right now as constructed.”
The state has cited the area as a problem spot for crashes.
A 2015 Western Connecticut Council of Governments study found 442 crashes between 2010 and 2012 on the
1.6-mile lower Federal Road corridor from White Turkey Road to Route 133. The WestCOG study found about
30,000 cars drive on portions of lower Federal Road each day.
There are no sidewalks and only one crosswalk in that Federal Road corridor, according to the WestCOG study.
The DOT project will include the construction of five-foot sidewalks to accommodate pedestrian traffic along the corridor, in addition to widening the road for four-foot shoulders to improve safety for bicyclists.
The project extends from the driveways of BJ’s and Kohl’s to the intersection of Federal Road and Junction Road. The plan is to pay for construction with 80 percent federal funds and 20 percent state funds.
The state began working on the project after Dunn asked the DOT commissioner to install a left-turn signal on the northbound side at Chick-Fil-A. But Dunn said the commissioner told him the state would not do that alone.
Instead, traffic signals will be installed at the southern intersection of Federal Road and Old New Milford Road, as well as the intersection of Beverly Drive and Hardscrabble Road.
Dunn said it is next to impossible to turn left off of Beverly Drive on the weekends.
Two traffic signals at the northern intersection of Federal Road and Old New Milford Road will also be removed.
A dedicated left-turn lane will also be added to the southbound side at the Chick-fil-A and Shop Rite plaza.
“It’s going to make the traffic flow much more smoothly,” Dunn said. “That’s what we want.”
Design is expected to be completed in January 2021, with construction anticipated to begin in summer 2021.
The public information meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Oct. 29 at Town Hall.