Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

We’re Not Doing a Great Job of Keeping Trucks Off the Merritt: Cameron on Transportation

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Hardly a week goes by that an over-height truck and a low-slung bridge on the Merritt Parkway have a close encounter of the worst kind: a collision. The King Street bridge in Greenwich has been hit 150 times in the last decade, 24 times last year alone.  Despite $1.8 million in warning devices installed to prevent these strikes, they keep happening. All of the bridges on the Merritt Parkway, originally built to a minimum standard of eleven feet at the abutments, are too low for trucks.  In some places the bridges are even lower due to roadbed re-grading. The road just wasn’t designed for anything but passenger cars. Trucks aren’t the only vehicles banned from the parkways.  So too are RV’s, cars towing trailers, buses, hearses (in funeral processions) and all commercial vehicles.

Opinion
Jim Cameron Jim Cameron 8-2-16

10 Years After Panel’s Report on ConnDOT — Improvements, Missed Opportunities: Cameron on Transportation

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In the “land of steady habits,” we don’t fix problems — we study them, over and over again. It’s been 10 years since then-Gov. Jodi Rell’s “blue ribbon” Critelli Commission report studying the reform of the state Department of Transportation. You’ll remember that the study came after a construction scandal on I-84. And while much of the report addresses the dysfunction of ConnDOT, I was pleased that the Commission’s chairman, then-Pitney Bowes Chairman Michael Critelli, also picked up on some suggestions for improving rail service. Rail Service Recommendations
Among the key recommendations were:

—Expand parking at all rail stations, but leaving the towns to price and administer the issuance of permits.