State needs to do more than just listen to Route 82 business concerns
Almost 50 years ago, Billy Preston, who helped reinvigorate The Beatles in their last days as documented in Peter Jackson's "Get Back," was riding the U.S. record charts with his hit single, "Will It Go Round in Circles." I'll bet WICH radio played it, though I doubt any of us saw it then as a harbinger for the path of future state highway improvement initiatives.
And yet in September 2022 here we are, though after last Tuesday's Connecticut Department of Transportation presentation on their proposal for updates on Route 82, and the City Council's deliberations and decision on the way ahead, I'm not sure where we are philosophically or in terms of traffic flow.
In a city with 39,000 residents (and fewer than 24,000 registered voters), it can be a struggle to develop a consensus on what we, as residents of a city, should be doing on any number of topics, much less what we should be doing next. But having said that, I'd suggest a considerable number of us do agree something needs to be done about Route 82, "Crash Alley," a vital artery in the heart of Norwich. We’d also agree the devil is in the details about what that something should or could be.
The thing about updating Route 82 is that from the first presentation by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CT DOT) in 2015, the proposal has always been to build six roundabouts. Every presentation (and I've been to all of them I think) includes promises to continue working with elected city leadership and with affected Route 82 business owners and operators to refine the overall design but then the next presentation retains the six roundabouts.
What I heard last Tuesday night, and the newspaper reports captured it very well, was frustration from those with businesses on Route 82, among others, who are told the design process is an ongoing conversation but nothing they say ever gets included in any CT DOT revised proposal.
Instead of starting to solve the public safety concerns on Route 82, we had, instead, anger at the decision by the City Council who voted "yes" (four Democrats in the affirmative and three Republicans opposed, as if public safety were now a partisan political issue) on the project's authorization.
Route 82 businesses speakLosing business to state traffic project. Route 82 properties to be seized for roundabouts
Our neighbors who comprise the Council, I suspect, are neither enticed nor seduced by the $100 a month stipend their service on the Council offers nor dissuaded and demoralized by the sometimes unkind comments we yell at them during public hearings or offer on various social media platforms (guilty as charged on both counts) when we disagree with decisions they make on our behalf.
Seven years on with this, I have no idea what the "right" answer is for updating Route 82 but there's probably more than one right answer, assuming we can even agree on the question. A meaningful dialogue with CT DOT should do more than simply acknowledge the perspectives of businesses and others affected. It must include hearing their concerns, listening to their stories, and then developing a more equitable solution addressing public safety concerns that doesn't treat anyone in our city like collateral damage.
The CT DOT, collaborating with everyone across this city, has an obligation to get it right and we as stakeholders must make sure they don't settle for anything less.
Bill Kenny, of Norwich, writes a weekly column about Norwich issues. His blog, Tilting at Windmills, can be accessed at https://tiltingatwindmills-dweeb.blogspot.com/.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Route 82 project in Norwich needs to include business concerns
