Governor Dannel Malloy is returning to Connecticut having spent the past couple days in Washington, D.C. for a series of meetings. The Democrat was part of a White House panel discussion on transportation infrastructure funding.Malloy laid out a 30-year $100 billion transportation vision for Connecticut earlier this year proposing new train stations, upgraded rail service and refurbished highways. The Democrat says panel members discussed alternative ways of funding infrastructure improvements including public private partnerships and investments from pension and sovereign wealth funds.
“I haven’t seen a Republican or Democrat who says don’t do transportation,” Malloy said on a call with reporters Wednesday. “Now everybody says don’t do transportation and pay for it. They just want you to do transportation. So at some point we’re going to have move to the discussion of how to pay for it.”
Malloy says he is agnostic about tolls and plans to name the members of a transportation funding commission in the coming days.
Meanwhile, a nearly $300 million project widening Interstate 84 in Waterbury, Connecticut is about to begin. Work includes replacing nine bridges, six culverts and 20 retaining walls. Two waterways must be realigned.
The Republican-American reports rebuilding the 2.7-mile stretch of highway that Governor Dannel Malloy has called one of the most infamous bottlenecks in Connecticut will begin Monday.
“Getting it done will mean positive change for entire neighborhoods near the Naugatuck River, as well as a safer and less stressful commute through one of the most notorious interchanges in New England,” Malloy said during February’s budget address.
The state Department of Transportation's contract requires the project to be complete by June 25, 2020.
The project costs $298 million, with a little less than half paid by the state and the rest by the federal government.
Work includes widening the highway from two to three lanes in each direction, reconfiguring exits, adding 12-foot-wide shoulders and building an access road.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
