After decades of decay, and in some cases much longer, Connecticut’s roads, rails and bridges are closer than ever to getting the maintenance and upgrades they so sorely need.
That is in no small part due to the bipartisan infrastructure plan passed in Washington, D.C.
So where do we start with this long list of projects? Newly appointed Department of Transportation Commissioner Garrett Ecualitto is here to talk about it.
Mike Hydeck: So first up, Connecticut is going to be getting a total of $5 billion over several years in that federal money. We have no shortage of projects. What’s underway right now? We’re already started on some, right?
Garrett Eucalitto: Yeah. So basically, all those projects you see out on the roadways today, all the the traffic jams being caused by road work, it’s all thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law. So we have major projects going on in I-95 in Westport. We have the Haddam/East Haddam swing bridge, which is a long awaited project. We’re starting a lot of work on I-91, 691, and 15 interchange, it’s just getting started. But the big pieces of that are going to roll into place in the next couple of years. And then we have work on the railroads and on our bus system that we need to work on, too, that are all kicking off.
Mike Hydeck: So it’s nice. It’s got to be, there are so many requirements connected to federal money when you have it. Even the towns that got it in years past, because of the COVID relief money, for cities and towns to spend that relief money, the stuff that they got initially was difficult for them to spend. There’s some that’s still sitting in accounts, it’s not getting spent. Is that the same when it comes to a DOT budget, or you can move quickly more quickly on that?
Garrett Eucalitto: So it takes a lot of work to get infrastructure projects moving because you have to do a lot of the design work, the permitting, work with local homeowners or individuals who own property on the rights of way. So a lot of work goes into a project before it actually hits the ground and starts construction. So we got a huge 40% increase in federal funds. Thankfully, we started hiring a lot of staff before the infrastructure law even passed so we could be in a better place, but it is gonna take a little while to get the train moving. It’s like a steam locomotive, it takes a little while to get going.
Mike Hydeck: So even the right of way, that could be in court for years in some cases, right? People fight it.
Garrett Eucalitto: Yeah, we try not to get into fights. But yes, it could.
Mike Hydeck: Try to avoid fights because it moves things along faster. So during the governor’s first term, he did a news conference in front of one of these 100-year-old railroad bridges. And the one he talked about, I think might have been in Norwalk, I can’t remember which town it was in, said it was gonna be a billion dollars. Really? For a bridge? A billion. Why?
Garrett Eucalitto: So we just had the groundbreaking for that a couple of weeks ago. The Federal Railroad Administrator just came up for it. So it’s underway. It is going to be a billion dollars.
Mike Hydeck: What goes into a billion-dollar bridge? It’s a bridge, right? I know. It’s a railroad bridge. And there’s mechanics that go into it.
Garrett Eucalitto: Yeah, so it’s a movable bridge, right. So it has to lift up and go down. It is on the most heavily traveled railroad in the nation. So we’re going to keep the railroad moving while we’re building this bridge.
Mike Hydeck: So you’re building one alongside it? Is that how it goes?
Garrett Eucalitto: So we’re building half of it. And while the other half is still open, we have to continue to open and close for the boats that have to come through. And then you have a lot of utilities. That bridge was built during the Grover Cleveland administration. And so you have utilities that have been there for 100 years. And so we need to help replace and remove those utilities.
Mike Hydeck: So there’s electrical lines under there as well? So a lot people don’t know that. You think bridge, I just have to put the concrete and put the steel on and we’re good. Not the case?
Garrett Eucalitto: No, it’s really complicated. It’s a lot of moving parts. A lot of people have been working a long time to get it moving. But it’s gonna be great when it’s done because it’ll last another 100 years.
Mike Hydeck: So that was my next question. Hopefully, we’ll get another century out of it. Alright, so Metro-North upgrades have been on the governor’s list forever. We’ve talked about it, said ‘oh, we want a bit faster to New York City.’ We want to have internet access all the way from here into Grand Central and everywhere else. Where does that stand?
Garrett Eucalitto: Yeah, so we launched a few different initiatives. One, we have the fastest trains in a generation right now on the New Haven line. We have, they’re called the Super Express.
Mike Hydeck: What does that mean though? Fastest train, so it’s going 60, now it’s going 65?
Garrett Eucalitto: Well your trip time is faster than ever before. So you can get from New Haven into New York City in an hour and 38 minutes.
Mike Hydeck: Okay. It used to be more?
Garrett Eucalitto: Oh, yeah, yeah. So you know, before we launched these, the fastest time was like an hour, 50 minutes or so. So now you can get there, they’re called Super Express. It only stops New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, Grand Central. So if you need to get into the city, that’s the train to take. But we are doing a whole lot of backlog of state of good repair, improving the signals on the roadway, improving a lot of the other bridges, not the movable ones, but the fixed bridges. When we fix those, we can increase the speeds from 70 miles per hour to 90 miles per hour. So that’s a long time frame but faster trains right now get you in faster because they’re Super Express. And we’re doing a study as to how we can roll out WiFi on the trains as well.
Mike Hydeck: That’s gonna be a little bit of a challenge, I bet.
Garrett Eucalitto: Yeah, they’re steel, really complex steel machines on the railroad. So how do we get WiFi signal to get through all of those rail cars?
Mike Hydeck: So now, next question. Everybody got infrastructure money. Rhode Island did, Massachusetts did, New Jersey did, New York did. They all have projects. How do you find the crews to pull all this off? Where are you getting them? Because every state got the money.
Garrett Eucalitto: Yeah, no, it’s a great question. Everyone is competing for the same talent. Both inside the DOT, we’re all competing for engineers. And then outside in the construction workforce.
Mike Hydeck: Heavy machinery, crane operators, you name it, right?
Garrett Eucalitto: So we’re working really closely with the construction industry, with the trades, building trades to try and ensure that we have getting more people in as pre-apprenticeship programs. Get people trained now, so that they’re ready. You know, when you look at the construction industry, it’s aging out. There’s a large number of retirements coming up in the upcoming years. So we’re working really closely with the construction industry to ensure there’s continuity there, and they’re there when we need them to deliver the projects.
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