“Grade separation has massive safety implications. It reduces the ability for wrong-way entry, reduces conflict at intersections, reduces que-related crashes–somebody stopped at a stoplight, somebody’s not paying attention to them. You grade separate, you eliminate that.” – Howard Weissberg, Deputy Director Middletown Public Works
“The Route 9 – Route 17 connector in a ramp is a very, very small acceleration area with a stop condition and poor visibility to oncoming traffic. So what happens is, there’s 854 accidents over a seven year period there. … This is the highest crash location in the state that is being rectified over the next three years by the construction project that is ongoing.” – Howard Weissberg, Deputy Director Middletown Public Works
“I think a lot of the crashes that happen in the area are going to be resolved with the completion of the Route 17 connector, and that project has just started.” – Jen Alexander, Kidcity Founder and Executive Director
Route 9 signal related congestion is not just a Department of CT Transportation problem. What happens when there’s a problem on the highway? Where do you see it? You see it in Middletown. You see Hartford Avenue. If there’s a delay in Hartford Avenue, St. John square gets backed up, Main Street gets backed up, Washington gets backed up Rapallo Ave. It gets backed up Northfield street. Newfield street gets backed up as a southbound detour. … River road, south of town gets backed up as a northbound detour. … When there’s an issue on Route 9, [there’s an issue] throughout the city. And then Washington Street signal causes delay congestion in Washington Street at the Loveland Street in the main street extension. So, there’s, there’s significant challenges with when there’s a delay either caused by just excessive traffic or one of the two accidents are happening on average every week. – Howard Weissberg, Deputy Director Middletown Public Works
“All of the plans I’ve heard would be really bad for downtown because they all prioritize getting traffic off the highway and into the downtown as opposed to leaving the traffic on the highway until it needs to get to downtown.” – Jen Alexander, Kidcity Founder and Executive Director
“I think the thing that is most important for me as a resident is that we have safe access to the river, and I don’t know if it matters if there’s lights or no lights for that to happen.” – Diana Martinez, Middletown Resident
“We also want to make sure that whatever happens ensures safe pedestrian and bicycle networks, reduces congestion on the side streets, improves air quality and ensures a visual and physical connection to the waterfront.” – Howard Weissberg, Deputy Director Middletown Public Works
There’s one bus fix cluster that runs under Rt. 9 and that goes up to the Cromwell shopping districts. … [People report that it] gets really congested during rush hour times because of the stoplight. It effects schedule [and] on-time-to-depart minutes, which is a major transit metric, right. Passengers being on the bus for far longer than they want to be, and they miss their connections. – Dennis Law, Middletown resident
One of the most obnoxious things about being right here, close to the highway and the bridge … is that heavy trucks use what is called a Jake brake. Are you familiar? So it’s like engine braking. Instead of using their brakes, they use the engine and this crazy muffler thing to slow down the truck and it goes, WAH, BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH. It makes this insanely loud noise, and that’s how it breaks. It’s sending off shockwaves like sound energy. … I’ve seen lots of cities where it says no Jake brakes within city limits. Calm. Right. Why not here?” – Bridge St. Neighborhood Resident
