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Officials unite in opposition to new Super 7 push
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Written by Justin Reynolds
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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If the message Wilton’s officials would like to send to proponents of the Super 7 highway project could be summed up in five words, those five words would be this: it’s time to move on.
The six-decade long debate as to whether Route 7 should be expanded to become a four-lane highway linking Norwalk to Danbury — which appeared to be dead during the summer — was recently reignited by State Senator Bob Duff, a Democrat from Norwalk. Opponents of the project say that more efficient — and cheaper — solution would be simply to improve the Danbury train line.
Mr. Duff, a longtime proponent of the highway, cited a survey done by UConn-Stamford, which showed that among 486 respondents — in Wilton, Bethel, Danbury, Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Redding, Ridgefield, Weston and Westport — 53% of them supported Super 7, 6% opposed it, 28% had a neutral position and 13% were unsure.
On Tuesday, a plethora of local officials — First Selectman William Brennan, Ridgefield’s First Selectman Rudy Marconi, State Senator Toni Boucher (R-26th), State Rep. Peggy Reeves (D-143rd), State Rep. John Hetherington (R-125th), Patricia Sesto, the town’s director of environmental affairs, Gail Lavielle, who serves on the state’s transportation commission, and Jonathan Chew, executive director of the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officals — gathered at town hall to denounce the Super 7 project.
“The cost of the highway vastly outweighs its benefits,” Ms. Boucher said, adding that she has more than 1,000 petitions against the project in a filing cabinet in Hartford. Ms. Boucher said at some points in the proposed highway, it’s 130 feet off the ground.
Ms. Boucher said the project would crush local businesses on Danbury Road, which she said depend on those who drive by for business. In addition to affecting local economies, Ms. Boucher said it would be “impossible to get [Department of Environmental Protection] permits” as there are some rare or threatened species in areas the proposed highway would pass through.
Ms. Lavielle said the stratified sampling used in the survey created “questionable” results, as only 32 people both in Wilton and Ridgefield and 16 both in Weston and Redding were surveyed.
Mr. Brennan was very direct about his thoughts on the project.
“With all due respect, why are we wasting our time on a very minor survey clearly staged to promote an outdated, extremely costly and unaffordable massive highway?” Mr. Brennan said. “Let’s be realistic.”
Mr. Brennan said with the state and federal governments in massive debt, Wiltonians “want government spending reduced and are alarmed over the future consequences of runaway national and state debt, that eventually will require higher taxes for all citizens.”
Mr. Nerney said the projected cost of the project is somewhere in the $2-billion neighborhood. That cost does not include the money needed to acquire additional land to build the roadway. (According to Mr. Brennan, about 60% of the land is state-owned.)
The current widening of Danbury Road in Wilton, Ridgefield and Danbury was “undertaken as an alternative to a super highway” 10 years ago, Mr. Nerney said, adding the portion in Wilton alone cost the state $35 million. He said the project, if undertaken, would devalue adjacent properties and drastically increase noise pollution.
“Studies have shown that the Route 7 traffic jumps 33%” with the installation of Super 7, Mr. Chew said, adding that traffic currently on backroads and sideroads would filter back onto the highway. This increase in traffic would also adversely affect air quality, he said.
Ms. Sesto said the highway would affect the Norwalk River valley, and that “the water quality [would] deteriorate rapidly.”
Ms. Reeves said that, philosophically, “we should not be in the business of building highways anymore. We need to be pouring our resources into mass transit.”
Mr. Hetherington said the project, if undertaken, would take decades to complete.
“The benefits are far, far off,” he said. “The misery would start right away.”
Mr. Marconi said the project would be “a waste of money, a waste of time.”
“The chances of this road ever being built, let alone built in our lifetimes, is almost nil,” Mr. Brennan said, adding that if funds were available to fix area infrastructure, they’d be better off used to revamp Interstate 95.
© 2009 Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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