City’s Orange Street connection delayed

NEW HAVEN — The opening of the newly reconnected Orange Street across Route 34 will be delayed about two weeks because of rain.

The anticipated date had been Thursday but recent rains, as well as more forecast for Thursday, “had more of a cascading effect than was anticipated and all of the street markings for pedestrians and bicyclists won’t be ready,” said Anna Mariotti of HNTB Corp., the city’s Downtown Crossing consultant.

She said while two weeks is a new estimate for the opening, “the crew, rightfully so, is waiting to see how things play out a little bit instead of anticipating a new date and not being able to meet the date.”

The Orange Street project, Phase 2 of Downtown Crossing, will feature the first protected pedestrian and bicycle lanes in the state, as well as special cycle-crossing signals. It will be the first time the two ends of Orange and South Orange streets will have been connected in 60 years, according to a Downtown Crossing statement.

Once it’s opened, the first traffic signal coming off Interstates 95 and 91 will be at Orange Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard so drivers will have to slow down to 30 mph as they exit the highways, Mariotti said.

Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media The intersection of Orange Street and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in New Haven on Aug. 30.