‘Secret’ tunnel to highway opening to all

NEW HAVEN — The shortcut to the highways under the Air Rights Garage and 100 College St. is opening to the public an hour earlier and, in a couple of months, will be available all the time.

But you’ll have to open a gate to get to it.

Anna Mariotti, the city’s consultant on the Downtown Crossing project, said Tuesday, “the hours are now 7 [a.m.] to 6 p.m. on weekdays” when there is a gatekeeper who allows only delivery vehicles and those with permits to enter the ramp at the east end of the garage on South Frontage Road.

That means anyone can use the shortcut, bypassing several traffic signals between College and Orange streets, on their way to Interstates 95 and 91 from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays and all day on weekends, she said. The so-called “secret tunnel” leads to one of the service drives between South Frontage Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

However, “speed bumps have been installed inside to slow people down going in and around” the garage, Mariotti said.

Also, “a gate is being designed and should be installed within the next two months,” Mariotti said. “Once the gate is installed, it won’t be staffed anymore, but you’ll have to hit the button for the gate to go up. That’s an effort to slow people down.”

Mariotti said there would be no cost to enter and she didn’t believe any identification would be needed to open the gate.

“It will be in that condition until the end of construction of 101 College Street,” which will be in fall 2023, she said.