Stamford To Receive $2.1 Million For West Main Street Corridor Project

STAMFORD, CT — U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced this week that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded $41.6 million from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program to support three projects in Connecticut, including one in Stamford.

The RAISE program aims to move forward projects that help modernize roads, bridges, transit, rail, ports and intermodal transportation, and make transportation more accessible, affordable and sustainable.

Stamford will receive $2.1 million for the West Main Street Corridor Planning Project, which will support design and engineering of a "complete street" on approximately 1.1 miles of the West Main Street corridor.

Safety will be improved at nine dangerous intersections by adding more visible crosswalks and shorter crossing distances. The planning project also includes adding sidewalks, bus boarding islands and separated bike lanes where feasible (or shared use of a travel lane). 

Currently West Main Street has on-street parking, inadequate sidewalks, and no bike lanes. According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Transportation, there have been 480 collisions with 101 injuries over a four-year period at the nine intersections in the project area.

This area is ranked top three for total number of injury crashes in the city, and ranked first for pedestrian crashes, with an average of five pedestrian crashes per year, U.S. DOT said in a news release.

"The project also supports racial equity because it is addressing severe safety issues in an area with substantial minority populations which heavily rely on walking, biking, or public transit to commute to places of employment," the U.S. DOT said.

In a statement to Patch, Mayor Caroline Simmons said she was "thrilled"about receiving the funds.

"My top priority is to improve our city’s aging infrastructure. This funding will support the planning needed to advance the West Main Street Corridor project, which will improve the corridor with complete streets technology, with a focus on greater mobility access, pedestrian safety and added bike lanes," Simmons said.

"I want to thank our federal delegation for their advocacy and support of this project, as well as our state delegation, and West Side Board of Representatives members. This funding and investment in the West Side is long overdue and I look forward to continuing to work with our local, state, and federal partners to move this project forward," she added.

Frank Petise, bureau chief for the city of Stamford Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department, echoed Simmons' excitement.

"The Transportation, Traffic & Parking Bureau is excited to receive this substantial federal grant to holistically plan and redesign West Main Street," Petise said in a news release. "This is an active corridor in the heart of the West Side neighborhood and we look forward to working with the community to improve safety for all users, reduce congestion, and create a better street for Stamford and its residents.”"

Plainville, New Britain and Waterbury will also receive funding.

Projects were evaluated on several criteria, including safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness and opportunity, partnership and collaboration, innovation, state of good repair and mobility and community connectivity.

Within these areas, the U.S. DOT considered how projects will improve accessibility for all travelers, bolster supply chain efficiency and support racial equity and economic growth – especially in historically disadvantaged communities and areas of persistent poverty.

This year’s total allocations nationwide include more than $2.2 billion thanks to Biden's infrastructure law, which provides an additional $7.5 billion over five years for the program to help meet the strong demand to help projects get moving across the country.

"We are proud to support so many outstanding infrastructure projects in communities large and small, modernizing America’s transportation systems to make them safer, more affordable, more accessible and more sustainable," Buttigieg said in a news release. "Using funds from President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, this year we are supporting more projects than ever before."