Twenty-three service plazas along I-95 and the parkways are going to be upgraded, including more food choices via the addition of fast food purveyors Subway and Dunkin”™ Donuts.
Whoopee-schwoopee.
Please excuse our pseudo-exuberance. But if anything should be fixed, it”™s the state highways, especially I-95.
“This is an unprecedented commitment to economic development, jobs and meeting the needs of the traveling public,” Gov. Jodi Rell said in making the announcement. “We are changing the face of our service plazas to make them as inviting, safe and convenient as possible to the hundreds of thousands of daily travelers on our most heavily used highways.”
How about making the state highways as inviting, safe and convenient as possible?
If you took a poll of whether motorists want better road food choices or less gridlock, we”™re betting the latter would win.
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Just a few short weeks ago, the rear tires of a tractor-trailer caught fire near Exit 19 in Fairfield. Tire fires in themselves are not considered dangerous unless the trailer above them happens to contain several thousand gallons of methanol. Firefighters were able to quickly put out the fire and cool the tank that was scorched. The tank had to be unloaded into another tanker. Tragedy averted. However, while all this was going on, the interstate was shut down for several hours and traffic was diverted onto Route 1 and the Merritt Parkway. All this was going on, we might add, during morning rush hour. I-95 carries about 130,000 vehicles per day just on the stretch through Fairfield county, according to state Transportation Department.
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The I-95 corridor is always one accident away from major gridlock. Imagine if more money was allocated for the building of highways that could offer alternative routes when such incidents occur?
Perhaps the state should consider an interesting aspect of Rell”™s announcement, the one that revolves around the triple P”™s: public-private partnership.
The cost of rehabbing these service plazas will not be solely borne by the state”™s taxpayers. The partnership will use private capital of about $178 million. The state is expected to receive $500 million over the length of the 35-year agreement through The Carlyle Group, which is providing the private equity.
A prime contractor will handle the project, including operations, maintenance, design, construction and all subcontracts. The state DOT will “manage and hold the prime contractor accountable for performance of all services.”
Maybe Connecticut should consider a public-private partnership to create more roads to ease I-95”™s burden.
