Tom Condon has an interesting op-ed piece in Sunday’s Courant discussing how I-84 came to its current alignment in Hartford, and what that did to damage the city’s neighborhoods. Also included in the op-ed is word of a consultant being brought in to look at I-84’s future, as the DOT contemplates rehabilitation of the Aetna Viaduct east of Sisson Avenue:
The Hub has now completed a request for proposals to engage a consultant to study alternatives to the viaduct. The city is putting up money, and the state might as well.
If all goes well, there’ll be a report next year on how to redesign and de-emphasize I-84 with the goal of a vital and mixed-use center city — similar to what was there before the highway was built.
The consultant will look at the possibility of burying the highway, lowering and decking over it, or rerouting the interstate traffic and turning the highway into a boulevard.
Although I expect the expense of doing anything other than just repairing the viaduct will be prohibitive, I have to say that the idea of turning I-84 into a surface boulevard, diverting interstate traffic to a different alignment (probably 72-9-91-15) is intriguing.
However, there’s still a ton of commuter traffic that will have to be dealt with in any such proposal.
