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I-95 project continues to transform East Lyme, two lanes at a time
January 21st, 2024
(Photo credit: Dana Jensen/The Day)
By Elizabeth Regan
Day Staff WriterEast Lyme ― Route 161 in the area of Interstate 95 was a flurry of activity on a recent weekday morning as the four-and-a-half-year reconstruction project that began last March entered its second stage.
The latest phase of the project was made possible by the most visible hallmark of the project to date: the months-long effort by engineers from Maine Drilling and Blasting to dislodge an 800-foot expanse of ledge on the northbound span. The last blast went off earlier this month.
By the end of 2024, the project’s senior management team said drivers can expect to see extensive overpass work, the creation of a new Exit 74 northbound on-ramp and jarring elevation changes as the roadway is leveled out in phases.
Drivers who have become accustomed to the 50 mph construction zone with narrow, shifting lanes will see the situation intensify over the coming year. Because of contractual obligations to keep two lanes open at all times, there will be instances when southbound traffic will be shifted onto northbound lanes as the overpass work is completed in three stages.
On Route 161 Wednesday morning, Resident Engineer Robert Obey of the engineering firm GM2 was stuck at a light in his pickup truck with state Department of Transportation project engineer Andrew Millovitsch. A broken sensor on the month-old Exit 74 off-ramp traffic signal was creating congestion on Flanders Road heading north.
“Andrew, this is not good,” he said. He looked on as the highway dumped two lanes of traffic onto the road where drivers had to merge to avoid a cable truck and a police detail that had closed the right lane for utility work.
The sensor, damaged in heavy rain the previous Friday, was awaiting replacement parts expected that day.
“It’s a perfect storm,” he said.
Obey emphasized the interconnected nature of the $148 million project planned in multiple phases through 2027. Utility work must happen to allow for replacement of the overpass as well as the widening and leveling of the northbound side of the highway by the end of this year. That, in turn, must be finished before the southbound side and Route 161 underneath it can be addressed.
The new northbound off-ramp was unveiled as what Obey called an “early Christmas gift” in December. This year, work will continue to focus on the northbound side.
“We’re not touching southbound,” he said.
At the busy construction zone that now sits where the old ramp was, Obey said tall piles of dirt weren’t just “junk hills.” He pointed to a surveyor with a GPS receiver standing with a drainage subcontractor on one of the mountains of infill that will eventually become the foundation for new northbound lanes rising more than a dozen feet over the existing span.
To rid the dangerous thoroughfare of the hills and valleys that currently make it hard for drivers to see ahead, the side south of the bridge will be raised more than a dozen feet while the other side will be lowered about 9 feet.
Obey said a massive temporary retaining wall to be built this year between the new off- ramp and the bridge will be the earliest manifestations of the extent of the elevation changes ahead.
“People are going to drive by, they’re going to look over and they’re going to see a 14-foot earth retaining wall that’s going to temporarily support the highway,” Obey said.
Once the retaining wall goes up and the two new lanes are constructed, northbound traffic will be traveling that much higher and about 40 feet to the side of where it flows now. He said the gradual shift won’t be noticeable for those looking ahead, though a look down at the unchanged side of the highway will leave drivers feeling like they’re 14 feet in the air.
On the other side of the bridge, crews were deep in the crevasse next to the existing northbound highway where the new, wider span will be built. They were using a rig to pound 30-foot rods at 30-degree angles into the earth with grout reinforcements for another temporary retaining wall.
“When we put traffic down here, you’re going to see these huge walls and go, ‘Wow, I’m in a hole. I’m in a big hole,’” Obey said.
The chasm was created by the blasting work that closed the highway for short intervals most weekdays since Aug. 1. The goal was to keep the closures below 20 minutes, though that didn’t always happen in the densest areas of rock.
Millovitsch said a less intensive blasting project will occur on the southbound side sometime in 2025, with brief closures expected.
The bridge
At the main construction site on Route 161, the cranes that have started to show up on trailers for work on the south side of the bridge. The engineers said installing the south half of the bridge will be the most high-profile task through the winter.
“Once that crane boom goes up in the air, it’s going to draw people’s attention,” Millovitsch said.
The cranes’ main job will be to swing 180-foot steel girders into place sometime around April, according to Millovitsch. But they will be used before that on abutment work necessary to widen the bridge about 40 feet on either side.
Obey said the main traffic impacts will come from the installation of the steel beams over two weeks. The work will require overnight closures on Route 161.
When that happens depends largely on factors including how long it takes the steel to arrive in a business climate that hasn’t fully recovered from supply chain disruptions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
While clauses in the agreement between the state and its contractors restrict major closures between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Obey said the project can’t afford any major delays.
“We have a contract, but they have the authority to change the contract at any time if it’s in the best interest of the project and the best interest of the taxpayers,” he said.
He reiterated that each major step of the project relies on completion of the one before it ― and on the vagaries of the weather. That’s why putting off the bridge work for several months could snowball into an extra year on a timeline already set to last more than four.
“Every business decision we make is one of balance,” he said. “Trying to strike a balance between being productive on the construction side and not turn the whole place into a parking lot with gridlock.”
Speed enforcement
The engineers credited the DOT’s work zone speed camera pilot program, which expired with the new year, for “changing the culture” of speeding on the interstate in East Lyme.
“Speeds are definitely down,” Obey said. “The vast majority of drivers are sensitive to the speeds through the work zone.”
The local roll-out of the DOT’s Know The Zone pilot program on June 5 brought SUVs equipped with cameras to snap pictures of vehicles going more than 15 mph over the limit. The first violation came with a warning directed to the registered owner of the vehicle, while the second came with a $75 ticket. Subsequent violations cost $150 each.
DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said the agency is writing a report and drafting a bill proposal to continue the work zone speed camera program. It’s up to lawmakers to decide if the pilot program authorized to last through 2023 should become permanent. The upcoming session of the state General Assembly begins next month and adjourns May 8.
Millovitsch expressed surprise and disappointment the camera-equipped SUVs are no longer a fixture in East Lyme.
“We were lucky enough to be part of the pilot program, because it was obviously super beneficial for us,” he said. “So if they do implement a more permanent program, I’ll certainly see that we get on the list.”
Morgan said 24,875 warnings and 724 tickets were issued in the pilot program statewide. He could not provide the tally from East Lyme by press time.
He said the state spent $4 million on the pilot program.
Obey said state troopers will go back to doing speed enforcement the old-fashioned way.
“The backup plan has always been to have Connecticut State Police do active speed enforcement through the work zone,” he said. “So we would simply revert back to that.”
Posted in: In the NewsExit 74 Reconstruction Project Meets its First Major Milestone
December 14th, 2023
Andrew Millovitsch, second from left, CTDOT project engineer, talks Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, with James Thirien, third from left, assistant resident engineer with GM2 Associates, and Manafort Project Managers, Anthony Pascuzzi, left, and Jerry Mals, right, about the markings for line striping on the new Interstate 95 North Exit 74 off- ramp in East Lyme. The new off ramp is scheduled to open Friday, Dec. 15 at 6 a.m. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
The new Intestate 95 North Exit 74 off-ramp in East Lyme on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023. The new off ramp is scheduled to open Friday, Dec. 15 at 6 a.m. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
Andrew Millovitsch, CTDOT project engineer, checks the markings for the layout of the line striping Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, while walking along the new Interstate 95 North Exit 74 off ramp in East Lyme. The new off-ramp is scheduled to open Friday, Dec. 15 at 6 a.m. (Dana Jensen/The Day)East Lyme ― Almost a quarter of the way into a four year, $148 million reconstruction of the Interstate 95 Exit 74 interchange, crews on Wednesday were preparing to meet the project’s first major milestone.
While the existing northbound off-ramp continued to spit drivers out at the convoluted intersection with Route 161 in front of Starbucks, subcontractors working for general contractor Manafort Brothers of Plainville were readying a new off-ramp 500 feet down the state road.
State Department of Transportation (DOT) project engineer Andrew Millovitsch said the new off ramp is scheduled to open at 6 a.m. Friday, if all goes according to plan. The old, shuttered off-ramp will eventually be swallowed up by the new commuter lot to be constructed as one of the last major improvements before the project’s expected completion in the spring of 2027.
The DOT by the end of November had spent roughly 24%, or $35 million, of the overall project budget, according to Millovitsch.
“I can confidently say we are on time and on budget,” he said.
Crews on the unopened off-ramp Wednesday were installing guard rails, cycling through a new signalized intersection to make sure it was detecting vehicles, and installing wrong-way signs in anticipation of the expected opening.
The new off-ramp will be longer than its predecessor and have three lanes where it ends across from Burger King, he said. The added length gives drivers more time to slow down so backups and rear-end collisions are reduced.
Millovitsch said each project milestone is significant because it means the contractor can move on to the next phase and keep the project on track.
“Opening this ramp opens up a lot of possibilities for the contractor to perform work,” he said.
He described the timing of the new off-ramp as a gift of sorts.
“We understand that our presence here hasn’t been 100% welcomed by everybody and we understand that we impact their daily lives and their travel plans,” he said. “But we kind of thought that actually delivering this off-ramp before Christmas was sort of a Christmas present to the town and the traveling public.”
Also expected to finish up before the holidays is the blasting project that has closed both sides of the highway for short intervals most weekdays since Aug. 1 as crews dislodged 800 feet of ledge. The goal was to keep the closures below 20 minutes, though that didn’t always happen in the densest areas of rock.
Millovitsch said tentative plans are to conclude blasting work by the Thursday before Christmas. Either way, there will be no blasting that Friday to accommodate holiday travelers.
Ledge on the southbound side of the highway will be removed in a separate phase. Millovitsch estimated work could possibly begin in the spring depending how things progress through the winter. He emphasized each phase depends on the one before it.
On that critical path is the replacement of the Route 161 overpass that will begin this winter. Once that’s done, crews will be able to start on what he described as the project’s single biggest safety improvement: the alignment of the highway itself.
“We are raising the highway on the south side of the bridge while lowering it on the north side to create a more gradual passage,” he said.
The work will get rid of the hills and valleys that currently make it hard for drivers to see ahead. He said the phased approach means drivers at some points will notice people driving next to them at different elevations. It also explains why the new off-ramp is about 8 feet higher than the existing highway, according to Millovitsch.
He said there won’t be any closures related to the bridge work on the highway during the day, when the contract specifies two lanes must remain open at all times. But traffic on the state road below can be stopped in daytime for up to 10 minutes.
He said he can’t guarantee all closures will happen at night even though that’s the preference. Ultimately, the decision depends on factors including how the work is progressing and when subcontractors are available.
The upheaval that can result from closures in the area was evident last week when the Exit 74 on- and off-ramps were shut down for two days for a last-minute paving project.
Millovitsch described the paving job as a stopgap measure to get through the next two years until Route 161 is scheduled to be overhauled. That’s when the road from Stop & Shop to True Value Home Center will be widened to accommodate four 11-foot travel lanes, 11-foot turning lanes, 5-foot shoulders and 5-foot concrete sidewalks on both sides.
Millovitsch said it was “a business decision” to interrupt traffic for two days in exchange for two years of safer conditions. He said conditions were marked by poor drainage, patching related to underground utility work and overall age.
“We just milled off two inches, put back two inches and established a crown on 161 in the center of the road,” he said. “So now all the water is hitting the road, running to the gutters and then going to catch basins.”
He acknowledged many people were caught off guard by the last-minute project that he said didn’t allow for “a lot of notice.”
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get the word out as early as we would have liked,” he said.
The project website, i-95eastlyme.com, now includes live video feed from multiple areas of the project recently updated to include Route 161.
“We encourage the locals to avoid traveling through here if possible to help our delays – and that way they’re not delayed – but at the same time we want them to stay in the area and keep visiting the businesses that are located on the job or right off the job.”
Posted in: In the NewsI-95 Blasting Engineer Turns Over Detonator to Next Generation in East Lyme
November 1st, 2023
East Lyme – Explosives engineer Mike Rodriguez was in a bright orange sweatshirt and a hard hat as he led a group of 14 aspiring engineers through the blasting site on the northbound side of Interstate 95 that has eroded 800 feet of ledge over the past three months. The site is part of a fou...Posted in: In the NewsCTDOT Offers Text Alerts For Planned I-95 Closures, Blasting at Exit 74
July 24th, 2023
EAST LYME – Drivers will have little notice before Interstate 95 closes fully in both directions in 15 minute intervals, twice a day, four days a week starting next Tuesday.
On Aug. 1, crews will begin blasting ledge along I-95 at Exit 74 in East Lyme to make room for another northbound travel lane as part of the $148 million rebuild at Route 161.
Posted in: In the NewsWeeks of twice-daily highway closures coming to East Lyme
July 19th, 2023
By Elizabeth Regan
Day Staff WriterEast Lyme ― It will become a common sight in less than two weeks.
A line of state police cruisers and heavy-duty trucks with blinking arrows coming to a slow, controlled stop as they direct all Interstate 95 traffic off the highway here to make way for a sporadic, weeks-long blasting operation.
Posted in: In the NewsNighttime Closures on I-95, Northbound and Southbound
July 14th, 2023
Nighttime Closures on I-95, Northbound and Southbound - Wednesday, July 19th
Motorists are advised that between 12:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, I-95 will be three (3) separate ten (10) minute shut downs (via rolling roadblocks) in both the north and south directions, including the I-395 Southbound merge, to support cable relocation. Please be advised that during these closures, Exits 73 and 74 Northbound and Southbound on-ramps as well as the Exit 75 Southbound on-ramp will be closed down.
Posted in: Press Releases, In the NewsTop 5 CTDOT Projects. What you need to know.
July 10th, 2023
By ED STANNARD | [email protected] | Hartford Courant
July 10, 2023
By road, river and rail, travelers in Connecticut are finding the state’s construction season is well underway.
Whether it’s road construction on Interstate 95, Route 9, the Haddam swing bridge over the Connecticut River or a new railroad station in Windsor Locks, the state Department of Transportation has been out working on improvement projects — and holding up road and river traffic at times.
Here are the top five DOT construction projects in Connecticut underway this summer. Projects are largely financed with 80% federal funds unless otherwise noted, including money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed in 2021.
The 110-year-old swing bridge between Haddam and East Haddam is undergoing major repairs.
East Haddam Swing Bridge
Cost: $78 million. Expected completion: Spring 2025
Anyone heading for the Goodspeed Opera House from the Haddam side of the Connecticut River has crossed the 110-year-old swing bridge to East Haddam. Unfortunately, the bridge, which carries Route 82 over the river, recently went out of control while being opened, making repairs a high priority.
“We’ve had some issues with that swing span,” said Josh Morgan, spokesman for the DOT. “During one of the afternoon openings, the person who’s actually controlling the joystick, controlling the mechanicals to open that bridge, lost all control of the structure and had to fight it back to go and get it closed and locked into place. So it was incredibly dangerous.”
Morgan added, “If that thing gets stuck when it’s fully open, that could just be a catastrophic failure in terms of the entire structure collapsing.”
For now, the bridge opens only at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, Morgan said. However, 70% of the pleasure boats are low enough to get underneath without it opening.
“We’re in a period now where we’re doing 63-hour closures of the bridge to full pedestrian and motor vehicle traffic” between Sunday night and Wednesday morning, Morgan said.
“That’s due to the type of equipment that needs to be out on the bridge,” he said. “It was just impossible to do the single-lane closures where you alternate traffic coming and going.”
The bridge also will be closed between December and March 2024.
Traffic must detour during the closures to the Baldwin Bridge on I-95 or the Arrigoni Bridge carrying Routes 66 and 17 between Middletown and Portland.
The project includes mechanical and electrical upgrades, Morgan said. It also will add a hanging, cantilevered sidewalk on one side of the bridge so pedestrians no longer will need to walk over the narrow, two-lane bridge. That will partially be paid with town money, according to the bridge website.
Route 17 on ramp to Route 9, Middletown
Cost: $55 million. Expected completion: Fall 2026
This project to remove the stop sign at the interchange of Route 17 and Route 9, among other issues, was announced in April after years of talks and inaction.
“This is what’s called a stop-controlled on ramp,” Morgan said. “Vehicles are at a complete stop at a stop sign, and then they have to try to get onto the highway to merge. And what we’ve seen through the data is a high rate of rear-end crashes.”
Between 2019 and 2021, there were more than 300 crashes at the interchange, 93% of them rear-enders, he said.
“The person who is at that stop sign is looking, trying to merge safely,” Morgan said. “That second car behind them is doing the same. They’re looking over their left-hand shoulder and they think they see an opening and they step on it, only to find out the car in front of them hadn’t moved.”
The next step will be to remove traffic lights from Route 9. “This is a precursor here for a much awaited and anticipated project to remove those traffic lights,” Morgan said. “No other highway in Connecticut has traffic lights in the middle of it.”
Windsor Locks train station
Cost: $87 million (state, federal, Amtrak). Expected completion: Summer 2025
The latest rail station to be rebuilt is in Windsor Locks, serving Amtrak and the Hartford Line, and encouraging economic development in the area.
“There’s a lot of redevelopment happening in Windsor Locks,” Morgan said. “They call it transit-oriented development or TOD, turning a lot of these old mills and factories along the river … into apartments, retail on the bottom floor, apartments on the upper floors. There is a new development right near this station.”
The station is among a number being rehabilitated or built along the line between New Haven and Springfield, Mass.
“What is being done is building this into a multi-modal hub,” Morgan said. “Having a covered station, ticketing similar to what other station upgrades have been made along the Hartford Line, bus connections for hopefully a new future express bus over to Bradley Airport.”
It also will include a multi-use path to connect to a nearby canal trail, he said.
The project also will involve track upgrades. “A lot of the work that’s been being done over the last year involves the track,” Morgan said. “This is a complicated project. Anytime we’re doing work on the railroad, it’s complicated. So, (we’re) working with Amtrak to improve the rail line that’s out there. It’s actually relocating and reconstructing about a mile and a half of the tracks because of where the station move is going to be.”
The next station that will be built will be in Enfield, Morgan said.
Exit 74 of I-95, East Lyme
Cost: $148 million. Expected completion: Spring 2027
Just begun in the spring, the Exit 74 project will eliminate a short merge lane, also known as an acceleration lane, onto I-95, replace the on and off ramps and the I-95 bridge over Route 161.
“You just feel like when you’re entering the highway, that that merge lane just is really short,” Morgan said. “There’s not enough room for your vehicle to get up to speed. So that’s one of the things that this project is addressing.”
Besides being short, the merge lane has a difficult turn involved, he said. “You basically have to come up to the on ramp and then cut your wheel almost 90 degrees with a real hairpin … to get you to merge, almost like backtracking to get onto the highway,” he said.
There also will be an auxiliary lane added to allow vehicles to travel from Exit 74 to Exit 75 without merging into the high-speed lanes, as they have tended to do, Morgan said.
“So much of our interstate system is being used for local traffic here in Connecticut,” he said. “Sometimes it’s easier to hop on one exit and get off the next instead of trying to navigate local roads. So that’s where a lot of the traffic is generating here as well.”
Sidewalks also will be added to Route 161. “What we’re doing as DOT now is from Day One, when people are designing these projects, when they’re talking about the projects, are there ways to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety?” Morgan said.
Exit 16-17 of I-95, Norwalk-Westport
Cost: $104 million (90% federal). Expected completion: November 2024
This project also will improve the merge lane onto I-95 northbound, paving the median and widening the shoulder for 2 miles between Norwalk and Westport.
The project includes “a full replacement of the bridge over Saugatuck Avenue but then also doing repairs to other bridges to bring them into a state of good repair,” Morgan said.
The job will not add capacity or widen the highway, “but it’s making those shoulders larger where they can, making that on ramp larger, fixing a bunch of the drainage issues which are down there,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of roadway flooding in lower Fairfield County on these coastal communities,” he said. The project will be “addressing some drainage deficiencies to stop (I-95) from flooding and some of the local roads off of 95,” he said.
Ed Stannard can be reached at [email protected].
Posted in: In the NewsSpeed cameras keep watch over Interstate 95 work zone in East Lyme
June 18th, 2023
East Lyme ― The multiyear Interstate 95 construction project at the exit 74 interchange is part of the state’s test run for speed cameras in work zones. The speed camera and radar system arrived atop a white SUV June 5 from its previous position in Newtown, where it watched over rec...Posted in: In the NewsCT House Approves Speed Limit, Red Light Cameras
May 23rd, 2023
CT House approves speed limit, red light cameras by Mark Pazniokas - May 23, 2023 Connecticut already allows speed limit enforcement in highway work zones. A bill would allow municipalities to use them on roads to enforce speed limit and red light violations. MARK PAZNIOKA...Posted in: In the NewsNew program will ticket drivers for going too fast in a work zone
April 19th, 2023
There is a new pilot program here where you will be ticketed for going too fast by a work zone.
Posted in: In the News
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