Craig McNamara of Danbury crossed the trench he and co-workers from NY-CONN Corp. were digging last week, as work started on the long-planned traffic light on Route 7 by the driveway to Regency at Ridgefield, Laurel Ridge and Ridgefield Crossings. —Macklin Reid
Men and machines began digging along Route 7 as work started last week on the long-awaited traffic light where the highway meets the access drive shared by Regency at Ridgefield, Ridgefield Crossings, and Laurel Ridge Health Care Center.
Lobbying for the light goes back a few years, but the campaign gained urgency this summer when there was a fatal car-motorcycle accident at the site.
Construction will take a couple of months, perhaps longer.
“Assuming that weather is not a problem, they should be done sometime between the beginning of February, the end of March,” First Selectman Rudy Marconi said.
Of course, with winter’s frosts and snows coming on, work free from weather problems isn’t something that can be assumed with confidence.
“Frost doesn’t help — that’s why they’re getting the trenching done now,” Mr. Marconi said.
The other potential delay is waiting for the equipment — the signal light, and related mechanical and electronic components in the support system — to be approved by the state and delivered.
“The problem lies in obtaining the equipment,” said Town Engineer Charles Fisher. “Once the equipment submittals are approved by the State of Connecticut, the contractor will place an order for them. It typically takes 10-12 weeks.”
The contractor, Danbury-based NY-CONN Corporation, already has the paperwork in with the state, and has started doing the roadside digging.
“Their game plan now is to do the trenching work while the asphalt plants are open,” Mr. Fisher said. “And if we have a mild winter, they plan on continuing their work by pulling the necessary cable through the conduits that they’ve just installed, and potentially late February and early March the equipment will be in, and they can install it, which will go quick.
“Typically what happens in a construction project is the contractor will give to us equipment submittals — the exact piece of equipment that he will be using. In this case it will be the traffic light, the controllers, all the of the equipment.
“And those submittals have to approved by State of Connecticut. Those were submitted two weeks ago.”
He is confident in NY-CONN.
“Our contractor is very well experienced with traffic light installation in the State of Connecticut. They do them all over the state. They work with the state. And they have a good relationship with them, so it should go quickly.”
Four lanes of Route 7 traffic were moving by workers as they did their jobs Tuesday, and officials say nearly all the work can be done without stopping traffic on the highway.
“Most of the work is going to take place off the highway,” First Selectman Marconi said. “There will be a point when they do need to get out on Route 7, sure.”
“I’m guessing, only for a very short duration when they have to string the cable across Route 7,” Mr. Fisher said. “It won’t be for any appreciable amount of time, maybe 10 minutes.”
As Mr. Fisher describes it, the plan is for a trip-signal light that would be green for north-south traffic on Route 7 most of the time. Cars coming out of the driveway on the eastern side — serving Regency, Laurel Ridge and Ridgefield Crossings — would have the ability to trip the signal and trigger a change of the light. Cars on the driveway to the west won’t have that ability to prompt a light change.
“The people on the other side will not have a direct light, because they did not participate financially in the project,” Mr. Fisher said.
Cars on the west should continue to be able to pull into the southbound flow of traffic, of course, and will likely gain the ability to cross traffic and go north when the light serving the driveway on the east stops traffic on Route 7 and goes green for the driveway across the highway.
“When there’s a green light at the Regency, essentially they’ll have a green light, also,” Mr. Fisher said.
The project’s bid construction cost is $125,477, Mr. Fisher said, but there will also engineering bill and the budget for the entire job is $175,000.
A state grant covers $75,000. The town’s contribution comes mostly as time by personnel working on the project. And remainder of the cost is covered by the donations from private “stakeholders” who lobbied for the light. These include: The Regency at Ridgefield; Toll Brothers, which built The Regency; Laurel Ridge and its owner Athena Health Care; and Ridgefield Crossings and its owner Benchmark Senior Living.
Town officials are happy to see construction work on the light begin at last.
“I think it’s going to be a great improvement to the safety of everyone,” Mr. Fisher said.
“We’re excited that it’s finally coming to fruition.”