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Will (Bicycle) Wheels Come Off Route 11 Plan?
By Karin Crompton
The Day (Connecticut)
November 4, 2008
Norwich - A small group of regional leaders publicly voiced a question Monday morning that many are asking privately: Is the Route 11 extension still a viable project?
A couple of members of the executive committee of the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments pegged the likelihood of the highway's completion as a less than 50-50 chance, considering the weak economy and other factors holding the project up.
”At some point,” Preston First Selectman Robert Congdon said, “we have to handicap the likelihood that Route 11 ever gets built.”
The executive committee also discussed whether the effort to build a greenway around the proposed highway, long considered a key component toward winning approval for the highway project, was still worth the time.
The greenway project changed dramatically this summer when it was learned that the wording of a federal earmark described the project as a bicycle and pedestrian path rather than a greenway.
The commission charged with buying land to create the greenway - a large swath of open space on either side of the highway - has had to reinvent itself, focusing now on designing a bike path in order to receive federal funding.
”We're in a different business,” said Richard Guggenheim, assistant director of the COG.
Waterford First Selectman Dan Steward said the Greenway Authority Commission, whose meetings he attends, is “basically at a standstill.” The bike path will take about a year to plan, he said, putting the project on hold. Meanwhile, the commission, which does not have the power of eminent domain, is unable to buy properties from landowners who have said they will sell.
James Butler, the COG executive director, said the Federal Highway Administration has said it will only pay for land that supports the bike path, which likely eliminates the commission's ability to buy large, environmentally sensitive parcels.
Members of the executive committee questioned whether the change in direction saps the purpose of the commission.
”It's taking a lot of effort and time,” Butler said. “Years ago, it seemed like effort well spent. Nowadays, it seems like the possibility that Route 11 will be completed seems remote.”
The greenway made it “less likely” that the federal Environmental Protection Agency would veto an approval from the Army Corps of Engineers, Butler said, but the project depends upon a number of other factors as well.
Steward said the region should put the responsibility of purchasing land on the state Department of Transportation and the highway administration because the greenway commission can't do it anymore.
The executive committee agreed to attend the next meeting of the greenway commission on Dec. 5 to discuss the matter. It also agreed to recommend that the greenway project still pursue funding while leaders further investigate the project's current roadblocks.
Peter Sielman, chairman of the Greenway Commission, said in a phone interview Monday that it still hasn't been clarified whether the commission can buy large parcels of land or only enough property for the bike path.
Sielman said the “real Catch-22” is that the commission needs to submit a preliminary plan for the path before it knows which properties it will own.
Sielman said Congress can change the wording of the earmark to reinstate the “greenway” term and eliminate the problems that come with trying to suddenly create a bike path.
”It's one of these really stupid bureaucratic muddles which can be easily fixed if people want to use common sense,” he said. “Instead of wasting money on a plan that has to be redone if we ever get the land ... common sense might prevail.”
Sielman said the commission's work is still worthwhile if the greenway is indeed eliminated and replaced with a bike path.
”It still preserves land,” he said. “It's a less forceful argument for the environmental community because it's less land, and therefore there will be more development and more houses encroaching on where the road will go. … Luckily, there's not a lot of building going on right now and won't be for a while. It's also a terrific time to buy properties because prices have become depressed, so we could buy properties for the same amount of money.”
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