… As people get used to the change, leave earlier, choose a different route or switch to mass transit, traffic gets back to normal. “Typically, I see about two weeks of this behavior that exists and then it dissipates,” said Jim Travers, director of the city Department of Transportation, Traffic and Parking. Closing Exit 3
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The hands that played a part in creating the Downtown Crossing initiative picked up shovels and tossed some dirt to mark the groundbreaking of a project Mayor John DeStefano Jr. says will “reconnect” the city.

New Haven’s Route 34 connector — long derided as the “highway to nowhere” — will soon become somewhere.

NEW HAVEN — The city will begin the process of turning Route 34 from a short, three-exit highway into a broad boulevard when it starts preparing to close Exit 3 by the end of the month, according to a statement today from City Hall. The exit will close in four to six weeks, according to
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With work set to begin reconnecting College Street, the city just picked up another $2.2 million to do the same down the block. The $2.2 million will go toward designing the next phases of Downtown Crossing, the step-by-step filling in of the Route 34 Connector “Highway to Nowhere” and reconnecting downtown with streets at the
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New Haven will receive $2.2 million from the Connecticut Department of Transportation for the Downtown Crossing project. Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro announced on Thursday that they had secured funding from the state for the city’s largest development project, which will replace portions of Route 34 with urban boulevards and erect
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City officials and consultants again explored the huge Downtown Crossing project Wednesday night at a public forum, bringing about three dozen people up to date on the signature first phase, 100 College St., and current thinking on how streets, traffic and future development might play out in the area from the Air Rights Garage to
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The project has had its critics, notably pedestrian and bike advocates. Bike advocacy group Elm City Cycling had been in support of the project, called Downtown Crossing, that is, until the afternoon of August 6, when they officially withdrew their support. For more on this story, visit: Downtown Crossing in New Haven Loses Support of
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After years of discussion, a plan to reknit the city back together, reclaim some 11 acres of developable land and start to undo the harm of a highway that split neighborhoods 50 years ago, passed unanimously Monday. Various outlets report.

The city’s Board of Aldermen is expected Monday to approve a proposal to remove a mile-long section of Route 34 known as the Oak Street Connector.

Nearly 50 people showed up on a day’s notice Tuesday night to discuss their concerns with the project design. The meeting was called by bicycling and pedestrian advocates, along with some members of the Board of Aldermen. The CT Mirror reports.

Sign a petition for wide, safe sidewalks in the new Route 34 plan in New Haven, check out their WalkBikeTransit blog and download the cool August 2012 Bike to Cool Calendar. Click on this environmental headline for more of this story.

The rabbi pointed high up in the sky to a light pole bearing a barely distinguishable wire. “Do you touch that one?” he asked the civil engineer beside him.

“I need to look at my plans,” replied the engineer as cars whooshed by on Martin Luther King Boulevard.

First-in-the-nation raised intersections. First-in-the-state narrowed lanes and “bike boxes.” So what’s the problem? Depends whom you ask. City officials describe as cutting edge some traffic-calming measures planned for the $35 million overhaul of the Route 34 mini-highway-to-nowhere. Some bike and pedestrian advocates, meanwhile, blast the plan and continue to push for further improvements. For more
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In the 1950s, this city, like others, believed that the best way to get people back from the suburbs was to build more highways. A result was the Oak Street Connector, a limited-access spur off Interstate 95 leading to the central business district. The thought was to make it easy for suburbanites to drive in
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Two hard-won traffic islands have disappeared from the planned reworking of streets around the $140 million “Downtown Crossing” project—meaning pedestrians might have to cross five lanes of traffic in one shot.That is the latest twist in an ongoing debate over whether Downtown Crossing and the attendant reconfiguring of the Route 34 Connector “mini-highway-to-nowhere” shortchanges walkers
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The urban renewal movement of the 1950s and 1960s left its mark on cities across Connecticut, but perhaps one of the most painful was in New Haven. Construction of Route 34 got underway only after the Oak Street neighborhood was demolished, forcing the relocation of 880 families and 350 businesses. Then, the highway — intended
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After nearly a month-long delay, Downtown Crossing, the city’s largest redevelopment effort in a generation, is back on track for a vote by the full full Board of Aldermen. At a public hearing Thursday night held by the joint finance and legislation committee, aldermen heard opinions from community members on the zoning changes and the
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Downtown Crossing, the city’s $135 million project to remake downtown that stalled in the Board of Aldermen last month, is nearly back on track. The City Plan Commission voted on Wednesday vote to approve a zoning change that would convert 15.8 acres of land from New Haven’s central business district into a new mixed-use district
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It was a little bit of deja vu for the City Plan Commission Wednesday night, which once again put its stamp of approval on the zoning map and text change for the new BD-3 district after a “redo” public hearing. The vote at the special meeting puts the complex Downtown Crossing project back on track
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