New Bridge Could Open key Areas

[Bill Mocarsky]

The Hartford Courant recently printed an op-ed by me. It's about the lack of a single city street linking Hartford with the east side of the river.

New Bridge Could Open Key Areas

does this road lead to downtown?

the Silver Lane / Hartford connection

[HartfordTycoon]

This would be a truly great thing to see happen. I really wish it could gain some momentum.

[The Voice of Reason]

funny, I talked about this and well you with Tomas from hartfordpreservation just last night.

I made a mental note to look into it more and you know, e-mail you.

I am hugely supportive of additional crossings, at almost any cost. I think since we have, what, 2 main highway crossings, and 2 more highway crossings near downtown, I honestly feel we need 2 street level crossings.

think how much traffic flows from east hartford into hartford alone, and all that traffic is forced into a Highway.

4,859 East hartford residents commute to hartford for work every day according to CERC stats

http://products.cerc.com/pdf/tp/easthartford.pdf

while several other towns West of the river are major destinations, the lions share are on those (2) bridges for just a couple of exits. This is the part of the highway with the fewest landes and the most traffoc. I am POSITIVE, that overall traffic will flow better with a local connection.

West Hartford 946

Bloomfield 854

Newington 652

Rocky Hill 420

Need more numbers?

An additional 1,928 Hartford residents work in East Hartford

6600 drivers 2X a day just for work.

[Bill Mocarsky]

I am hugely supportive of additional crossings, at almost any cost. I think since we have, what, 2 main highway crossings, and 2 more highway crossings near downtown, I honestly feel we need 2 street level crossings.

[Bill Mocarsky]

As far as East Hartford's fragmented riverfront, the first lesson that many students learn attending Goodwin's new river campus is that EAST RIVER DRIVE and RIVERSIDE DRIVE are not one and the same. I know some of the faculty there who say new students are constantly confusing the two.

You would think if you ended up on East River drive by mistake that you would at least be in the ball park. after all, EAST RIVER DRIVE and RIVERSIDE DRIVE are both on East Hartfords riverfront.

[The Voice of Reason]

I'll tell ya Bill, I honestly have not given too much thought to this beyond Connecticut Boulevard to Morgan Street, but giving it just a minute or two right now I'll say this much.

Your bridge location would act more like a highway connection than otherwise.

East River Dr. acts alot like a Highway connector currently. Heading North, yest it integrates with East Hartfords broken streetgrid, but heading S/East it just links into 2 highways.

People coming from Rt 2 would shoot straight to colombus ave, and thats fine, because it would take a lot of pressure off the other 2 bridges. But because of the way people would drive the road I am not sure it would really do what we hope it would do.

I now work at 10 colombus, and there is plenty of traffic over there as is. Its actually the biggest shock about the move. bringing more people through there will not necessarily lead to any economic growth in my opinion.

So for my bridges, I still think the best $ to result would be building a bridge from I-91 near the old landfill to East Hartfords dead end cloverleaf AKA Govenor street.

This would allow us to re route I-91 through East Hartford therfore freeing Hartfords entire riverfront to re-development.

And yes, It would also make traffic flow more smoothly through the city.

I made this map like a year ago.

This bridge is really just part of the solution, because I think ideally it would also lead to I-84 being brought through I-684 into I-91, therefore eliminating the need for I-84 to cross the Bulkeley.

the problem is that the Charter oak would need to be majorly expanded to handle that traffic flow as well, and then we are really talking about building 2 bridges at once.

so, how about that Bill, there are your 2 bridges buth for highways on my side, but I would convert the Bulkeley back to street level and connect it ti CT blvd.

for just 5 billion

[Bill Mocarsky]

I'll tell ya Bill, I honestly have not given too much thought to this beyond Connecticut Boulevard to Morgan Street, but giving it just a minute or two right now I'll say this much.

Your bridge location would act more like a highway connection than otherwise.

East River Dr. acts alot like a Highway connector currently. Heading North, yest it integrates with East Hartfords broken streetgrid, but heading S/East it just links into 2 highways.

[The Voice of Reason]

I looked at all of your stuff.

I guess we just differ in opinion on how Silver Lane/East River Dr extention function West of Main Street.

If you head west of Main you are hauling butt like you are on a highway. Now people may change the way they drive, but I see people merging off of I-84 onto 5 than taking the east river drive exit and jamming into Hartford on your bridge. I suppose there is no way to avoid this with East Hartford so fragmented.

There is not much room for development East of your bridge either.

up on CT Blvd, there is a nice grid that can be redeveloped to higher uses.

like I said bill I dunno

do I want more bridges though? heck yeah, and do I want some to be integrated with the street grid? definately!

do I now what would work best? likely not.

I just feel that if we were to spend money on a new bridge I would do what I posted above.

the side benefits are massive with the Hartford riverfront freeing up etc...

[MadVlad]

Your bridge location would act more like a highway connection than otherwise.

East River Dr. acts alot like a Highway connector currently. Heading North, yest it integrates with East Hartfords broken streetgrid, but heading S/East it just links into 2 highways.

People coming from Rt 2 would shoot straight to colombus ave, and thats fine, because it would take a lot of pressure off the other 2 bridges. But because of the way people would drive the road I am not sure it would really do what we hope it would do.

I now work at 10 colombus, and there is plenty of traffic over there as is. Its actually the biggest shock about the move. bringing more people through there will not necessarily lead to any economic growth in my opinion.

[Hiramicus]

I'll tell ya Bill, I honestly have not given too much thought to this beyond Connecticut Boulevard to Morgan Street, but giving it just a minute or two right now I'll say this much.

Your bridge location would act more like a highway connection than otherwise.

East River Dr. acts alot like a Highway connector currently. Heading North, yest it integrates with East Hartfords broken streetgrid, but heading S/East it just links into 2 highways.

People coming from Rt 2 would shoot straight to colombus ave, and thats fine, because it would take a lot of pressure off the other 2 bridges. But because of the way people would drive the road I am not sure it would really do what we hope it would do.

I now work at 10 colombus, and there is plenty of traffic over there as is. Its actually the biggest shock about the move. bringing more people through there will not necessarily lead to any economic growth in my opinion.

So for my bridges, I still think the best $ to result would be building a bridge from I-91 near the old landfill to East Hartfords dead end cloverleaf AKA Govenor street.

This would allow us to re route I-91 through East Hartford therfore freeing Hartfords entire riverfront to re-development.

And yes, It would also make traffic flow more smoothly through the city.

I made this map like a year ago.

This bridge is really just part of the solution, because I think ideally it would also lead to I-84 being brought through I-684 into I-91, therefore eliminating the need for I-84 to cross the Bulkeley.

the problem is that the Charter oak would need to be majorly expanded to handle that traffic flow as well, and then we are really talking about building 2 bridges at once.

so, how about that Bill, there are your 2 bridges buth for highways on my side, but I would convert the Bulkeley back to street level and connect it ti CT blvd.

for just 5 billion