Question of Funding Lingers as State Sketches Out Safe Pedestrian Crossing of 123 at Locust

The good news for residents who live near a bustling Route 123 intersection that motorists enter six different ways is that state officials have sketched out a plan—it includes new push-button signals, sidewalks, pedestrian ramps and crosswalks— that would help them get safely across New Norwalk Road.

Looking southbound along Route 123 at Locust Avenue, on June 25, 2015. Credit: Michael Dinan

As it is now, that’s an ill-advised, dangerous prospect where Locust Avenue and Summer Street converge at the northwest edge of downtown.

The bad news is that the Connecticut Department of Transportation in its proposal has indicated that the state agency would pay for the crosswalk striping only—an approximately $250 piece of a project that municipal officials peg $33,000 to $35,000 all in.

New Canaan would need to build some 75 feet of sidewalk with granite curbing, move two walk signals with conduits, re-time them “and do a whole bunch of other stuff” including signage and striping, according to Tiger Mann, deputy director of the New Canaan Department of Public Works.

The intersection of Locust Avenue at Route 123, from the Locust Avenue side. On June 25, 2015. Credit: Michael Dinan

“If the residents want it, they have to now kind of elevate that cause,” Mann said Tuesday during a meeting of an administrative team that fields requests for traffic calming, held in the Training Room of the New Canaan Police Department. “I can certainly put it in our budget, but I don’t know if it will hold water.”

Residents in the area have told town officials that awkwardly timed traffic signals are prompting motorists to speed and run red lights at the intersection. More families with young kids have moved into the area, residents have said (there are five bus stops on Locust alone between Cherry and 123), and cars at peak times back up as far as Cherry Street itself.

Because both Summer and River Streets essentially feed 123 just there, motorists enter the intersection six different ways.

The intersection of Locust Avenue at Route 123, from the Summer Street side. On June 25, 2015. Credit: Michael Dinan

Those approaching from Locust Avenue and Brushy Ridge Road get a traffic light and are instructed to stop well before the intersection at a red light—a signed directive frequently disobeyed. Motorists on Summer and River Streets come to a stop sign before entering those “feeder” streets. Though there’s a “push for green signal” button for pedestrians on two corners to cross New Norwalk Road, the intersection itself has no crosswalk and in any case, the light signal does not allow for a pedestrian-only crossing of the state road when it’s used. The only sidewalk that approaches the intersection runs along the south side of Locust Avenue and it terminates where Summer Street comes in.

The state’s sketch calls for six major changes to help address the problems there, focused around creating a new, safe crossing of Route 123 along the southern side of that state road:

Extend the existing edge of a curb on the western side of Summer Street to allow for construction of a sidewalk;

Construct a new sidewalk, at least four feet wide, that would swing along the last stretch of Locust Avenue on the south side, to Route 123;

Construct new pedestrian ramps at the western end of that new sidewalk at 123, and on the other side of the state road;

Move existing pedestrian push buttons to either side of that new crossing; and

“ConnDOT to install crosswalk.”

Mann said he could put the proposed sidewalk on his continuously updated list of sidewalk extensions in town. Each year, the DPW proposed capital budget includes $250,000 for new sidewalk installations, though in the past three years none of those funds ultimately have been made available, he said.

Here’s the intersection: