Norwalk recently approved $150,000 in city funds for a pedestrian and cyclist improvement project which will connect the South Norwalk and Wall Street neighborhoods isolated by I-95 and Route 7.
Norwalk’s Finance and Claims Committee unanimously approved the city’s request for the funding for the Urban Core Neighborhood Reconnection Planning Project, during a meeting on Oct. 8.
Jim Travers, who is Director of Norwalk's Transportation, Mobility and Parking Department, said many residents who have attended public community sessions on the project stated it’s dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists to try to navigate the area between South Norwalk and Wall Street, especially near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and West Avenue.
“We really had community members show up in numbers, really talking about biking, about public transportation, about how walking feels in there,” Travers said.
The project has also received $600,000 in federal funding through the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant and is still in the planning stages.
Travers said South Norwalk ended up getting cut off from Wall Street as a result of I-95 being constructed in the area during the 1950s.
Travers said the project would help rectify that.
“This grant isn't going to propose that we're going to be able to remove the highway or remove the barrier that's there, but there are going to be unique ways that we could approach coming together as a community to really stitch these two neighborhoods back together,” Travers said.
According to the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency, the overall plan would proceed in conjunction with a separate mixed-use development near the South Norwalk train station.
The agency described the project as a way to address what it described as higher than average car crash rates in an area where there are about 4,000 housing units and paths to various locations, including the train station and Norwalk Hospital.
A secondary route behind the SoNo Mall, which is partially privately owned, would also see improvements.
Norwalk isn’t the only city in Connecticut undertaking projects to help rectify what city officials say are the negative consequences of highway design as the country rushed to develop the federal highway system in the 1950s.
New Haven is also attempting to reconnect parts of the city divided by I-91, while Hartford has also received federal funding to realign I-84, which has faced criticism for isolating the northern section of the city.
Norwalk’s Mayor Barbara Smyth, who spoke at the meeting on Oct. 6, said the plan would also have an eye on improving access to the city’s attractions.
“We've identified these areas, and we're all going to sit here and come up with ideas and creativity to unite these really important parts of Norwalk, the whole Wall Street West Avenue corridor to South Norwalk, uniting our arts and cultural district that we're so proud of,” Smyth said.
City Councilman Brian Bailey said the plan could also utilize the nearby Norwalk River as an attraction for pedestrians once the project enters the construction phase.
“People want to go to certain places, and just being around water is an attraction,” Bailey said. So we can make that more accessible as a way to get people in and out.”
