A rendering of the future ped-and-bike-only Court St. bridge. The Court Street bridge, on Tuesday. The state plans to invest more than $100 million in a project designed to modernize — and attract more travelers to — the State Street train station, prompting neighbors to push for details on a related effort to convert the adjacent Court Street bridge to pedestrian and bicycle use, only. State Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives detailed that project and fielded those questions Monday evening during a meeting held at 200 Orange St. Monday night’s meeting was held specifically for (but not limited to) nearby residents; roughly 20 people showed up. A broader public meeting about this same project will be held at High School in the Community on Jan. 20 at 6 p.m. As revealed at Monday’s meeting, the state DOT is planning to replace and extend the existing island platform at the State Street train station, which project manager Jonathan Kang described as “structurally deficient.” Currently, the Court Street bridge limits how much work can be done on the platform. So the DOT is going to convert the Court Street bridge into a multi-use pedestrian bridge, shrinking it from 45 feet wide to 25 feet wide, with direct elevator and stair connection to the State Street station. State Street station’s Track 4 platform will be lengthened to 394 feet to land four train cars, and the Track 6 platform will be lengthened to 540 feet to land six train cars, according to the DOT plan. One added benefit of the construction, Kang said, would be a hopeful increase in ridership due to the extended island platform and improved accessibility. The Court Street bridge project — which will include bridge rehabilitation/replacement, paving, sidewalk improvements, guardrails, and upgraded fencing — is anticipated to cost $16 million. Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2027 and end in the summer of 2028. The State Street station project, which will additionally include new and rehabilitated elevator and stair connections, is projected to cost $97 million. Construction is expected to begin in the spring 2029 and end in the fall of 2030. All costs are to be covered with state funds. Platform at State Street station. Pedestrian traffic will have to be redirected for a year while the pedestrian bridge is under construction, and vehicular traffic will have to be redirected permanently. While cars will no longer be allowed on the Court Street bridge, they will still be allowed to travel both east and west on other parts of Court Street that are currently open to vehicle traffic. Meeting attendee Carmen Shortt was wary of the possibility of more car traffic on Chapel Street. “There is heavy traffic going over that bridge,” she said of the Chapel Street bridge. “You have all the buses going over there now.” Thomas Laliberte, projects manager with WSP, agreed that Chapel is a high-volume road, but he said that a traffic study showed that there is “little traffic on the Court Street bridge as is,” and therefore very little change is anticipated through rerouting, as most traffic is already on Chapel. By his firm’s estimates, Laliberte said that approximately 400 vehicles travel over the Court Street bridge per day, compared to about 800 pedestrians. One attendee at Monday’s meeting said that Laliberte’s number is an understatement. “When you say ‘so few vehicles,’ that’s a little offensive,” she said. She wanted to know if the traffic lights could be better synchronized to more efficiently accommodate rerouted traffic. Laliberte said that yes, it is possible, as they would have to look at all the intersections around the bridge as the project moves forward. Many attendees had questions about what the pedestrian-only bridge will look like at the end of this project. Designer Sam Gardner described the plan: blue and green glazed panels along the sides, LED lighting at night, and a “welcoming archway” at each end of the bridge. There will also be removable bollards on either side of the bridge to protect it from cars. The bridge would also consist of three lanes, with two lanes of multi-use path (like bike lanes) and a third lane that is only for pedestrians. In response to Gardner’s description of blue and green fencing, Kim Dirschka asked if it could be clear instead, so that pedestrians could watch the trains below them. “I think it’s cool to see the trains going by,” Dirschka said. Other attendees agreed. One said that her 3-year-old son loves to watch the trains, and that they regularly stand in the Strouse Adler building’s parking lot to watch them go by. Gardner said that the panels would be semi-transparent, but that they could consider making them more transparent rather than less. “We hadn’t really thought about the view,” he said. He also said that there would be small “plazas” on either side of the bridge, where pedestrians will have a clear view of the trains. Ioana Barac asked if designers could consider a finish that looked less like a road and more like a sidewalk, to more clearly delineate the pedestrian path. Laliberte said they could. Attendee Kevin McCarthy asked what might happen if someone has a heart attack on the bridge. How will emergency services get there? Would project representatives consider making the bollards on either side of the bridge retractable? Laliberte said that the bollards will be removable and that they would consider making them retractable. Assistant City Engineer Dawn Henning said that to her understanding, the bridge will not allow for fire trucks, which would have to be re-routed along with other vehicles, but that it would be fitted for an ambulance. “Any bathrooms or a place to buy coffee?” asked Doug Hausladen, who lives nearby and who is the executive director of the city’s parking authority, which manages both State Street station and New Haven’s other, much larger state-owned train station, Union Station. Hausladen attended the meeting as a neighboring property owner on Olive Street. Commuters enjoy using the bathroom and buying cups of coffee, he pointed out. Project reps said no, there won’t be bathrooms or a place to buy coffee in the renovated State Street station itself. Riders will continue to have to just use the bathroom on the train. Hausladen also questioned the multi-use path of the pedestrian bridge on Court. “Why are you creating bike lanes on a pedestrian bridge?” he asked. (Laliberte clarified that those multi-use lanes would not just be used for bikes.) “It appears you’ve reduced the pedestrian right-of-way by 50 percent” from the current two sidewalks, Hausladen said. He said he doesn’t think there is any need for the lane striping. “Suggest bikes and peds only.” Laliberte said that they would take that into consideration, but a DOT representative said that residents who weighed in said that the speed at which some cyclists travel across the bridge wasn’t conducive to pedestrians and requested separate lanes. “Prioritize pedestrians,” Barac said. “Very few Metro-North trains stop at State Street,” said McCarthy, making the station “grossly underutilized.” While he recognized that this is an MTA issue, he asked if there had been any conversations aimed at addressing the usage. “Lengthening the platforms would help.” A DOT representative said that DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto has directly asked the MTA to have more frequent Metro-North stops at State Street station. Barac is an owner of the studio Atelier Cue, which has worked to improve the Chapel/State intersection, often through art. After the meeting, when asked her feelings about the project, she said that she is “excited, it will be great.” She wondered if there is an openness for lighting art, in reference to Gardner’s plan for lighting of the pedestrian bridge, like programmed lights or sculptures. Carmen Shortt: Wary of Chapel Street becoming too congested. Ioana Barac, thinking about how public art can be brought to the bridge. Re-routing plan for vehicles. Designer Sam Gardner, presenting a rendering of the entrance of the new Court Street pedestrian bridge. The post $113M Overhaul Planned For State St. Station, Court St. Bridge appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less