Service Plaza Closures Expected to Soon Impact CT/NY Travelers

Those looking to make a pit stop near the Connecticut/New York state line will soon have to plan ahead. 

Six Fairfield County highway service plazas, four of which are located near the Connecticut/New York state line, will soon be closing for extensive renovations. 

The Daily Fairfield reports that the Northbound and Southbound Darien Service Plazas on Interstate 95 will close in February 2012 for renovations with a planned reopening in February 2013. 

The 16,600-square-foot northbound facility is the largest highway service plaza in Connecticut. It is home to a state tourism information center and houses one of the busiest McDonald's in the country.  

The Greenwich Service Plazas on the Merritt Parkway are also scheduled to soon close and reopen in October 2012. The northbound facility is home to a former seasonal state tourism information center in a separate building. The Greenwich Times reports that the center will be incorporated and reopened in the service plaza building.

The Merritt Parkway's Fairfield Service Plazas are also slated to close soon for a planned reopening in January 2013.

New Canaan Service Plazas on the Merritt Parkway are scheduled to close in March 2013 and reopen in January 2014.

The I-95 Fairfield Service Plazas are also slated to close in March 2013 for a planned reopening in March 2014.

All Merritt Parkway Service Plazas will feature a Dunkin' Donuts, Subway, Fast Freddie's Convenience Store, and Mobil gasoline station. 

The I-95 Service Plazas in Darien and Fairfield will include those vendors along with McDonald's and other food and retail tenants that have not yet been announced. 

All of the service plazas will feature tourism information centers, Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman Judd Everhart said. 

The service plaza renovations are part of a $178 million initiative by Project Service, LLC to . 

While the date back to the 1950's, the service plazas along the Merritt Parkway were built in the 1930's and 1940's. 

The Interstate 84 Danbury Rest Area will not be renovated as federal law prohibits the addition of commercial businesses at facilities that were not “grandfathered”. 

While the Danbury facility was originally scheduled to close this past summer due to state budget cuts; it was saved after travelers expressed opposition, according to the News Times. Its tourism information center component has been closed since 2009 because of previous state budget cuts.

Other rest areas in Connecticut that will not be renovated as part of this project include facilities in Willington (eastbound and westbound) on I-84, Stonington (southbound) and Westbrook (northbound) on I-95, along with Wallingford (southbound) and Middletown (northbound) on I-91. 

The westbound Willington, Stonington, and Westbrook rest areas include a staffed tourism information center component. 

All seven rest areas were built in the 1960’s according to the .