New Haven Register: Reclaim Route 34

A thoughtful masthead editorial from today's New Haven Register, supporting the plan to reclaim Route 34 for urban development:

Reclaim Route 34 for downtown (New Haven Register editorial 4/20/08)

There is no need for the Route 34 connector that funnels interstate traffic into the heart of downtown New Haven. The sunken roadway creates a dead end for downtown, gobbles up land that could be developed and doesn’t even serve the purpose for which it was built. The connector was built in 1959 as the first section of a highway that was to have extended to Route 8 in Derby. Instead, it stops abruptly at the Air Rights Garage.

The idea of reclaiming this land, which once was full of homes and businesses, has been slowly gaining support since New Haven’s quick, initial 2005 study of its feasibility. The city has estimated that development of the highway land could add almost $3.8 million in tax revenue.

A far more detailed study done by consultants for the South Central Connecticut Regional Council of Governments was completed in October. That study, done at the city’s request, has formed the basis of preliminary discussions with the state Department of Transportation. The study estimated that the land could support 1.4 million square feet of midrise buildings for commercial, residential and retail use.

Last week, the discussion of Route 34’s future was energized by a public meeting and discussions here led by John Norquist, the former mayor of Milwaukee, who oversaw the demolition of a freeway spur in his city and its replacement with city streets.

Milwaukee is one of several U.S. cities that have replaced freeways with streets. Portland, Ore., tore down the Harbor Drive Freeway that once carried 90,000 vehicles a day. The Central Freeway in San Francisco, on which 93,000 vehicles traveled daily, was replaced by a boulevard. In comparison, about 75,000 vehicles a day use the Route 34 connector.

What happens to that traffic? According to Norquist, who is president of the Congress for the New Urbanism, it is absorbed into the restored street grid. In New Haven’s case, instead of the connector’s three exits, drivers could choose from all the city streets that now end where the highway cuts them off.

Norquist also widened the discussion. Much of the talk here has centered on a broad boulevard that would extend from roughly Church or Orange Street to the Air Rights Garage. He noted that Milwaukee replaced its highway with a two-way street with sidewalks and parking. He also suggested that all of the connector be reclaimed, right up to where Interstates 95 and 91 connect to Route 34 next to Water Street.

Albert A. Martin, the new state deputy transportation commissioner for transit-oriented development, attended the meetings here. Although the DOT has yet to be convinced of the Route 34 plan, he agreed “there is a need for change.” State support may hinge, in part, on how reclaiming Route 34’s land will support alternatives to automobile use, from the provision of bike lanes and the construction of housing within walking distance of work to how a new street plan connects to the nearby rail stations on Union Avenue and State Street.