A sidewalk construction project expected to on Monday, Sept. 17, should result in a pathway that people can use to walk along Tokeneke Road from downtown to the border with Norwalk at Five Mile River, First Selectman Jayme Stevenson announced.
What the corner of Lake Drive and Hoyt Street looked like when that sidewalk was constructed. Expect a similar look on Tokeneke Road in upcoming weeks.
The sidewalk would connect downtown to businesses near the Five Mile River, a 1.2 mile distance, according to Google Maps, that takes about 24 minutes (although that’s not a very brisk walk).
The construction project, Stevenson said at Monday’s meeting of the Board of Selectman, encompasses “that area between the end of the [downtown] commercial district and underneath I-95 to connect the businesses that are on the south side of I-95.”
The work, she said, “is going to begin on [Monday] Sept. 17. The project construction period is about three weeks, weather-dependent.”
According to the National Weather Service’s Darien-specific forecast, as of Saturday morning, rain is expected Tuesday and Tuesday night, and rain is possible on Wednesday, but not for the rest of the week.
The National Weather Service has also issued a “Hazardous Weather Outlook” statement about those rains. The statement (as of 5:45 a.m., Saturday) reads, in part:
There is potential for heavy rainfall from Monday night into Tuesday night with the passage of the remains of Florence. There is still some uncertainty on the track of this remnant low, but there is increasing confidence in a swath of 1 to 2 plus inches of rain, and locally higher amounts of 5 or more inches are also possible in its track
Currently, the route takes walkers under the I-95 bridge amid trash, gravel, dirt and either dust or mud, depending on the weather. Walking east from downtown brings you to intersections taking you across the very wide entrance to Interstate 95, then under the bridge, then to the Exit 12 off-ramp. Tokeneke School is also along the route.
Walkers would get a healthy way of getting to shops in Darien near Five Mile River and could walk a shorter distance beyond that into downtown Rowayton.