STRATFORD — State Rep. Joe Gresko stood at the bottom of the new northbound on-ramp onto Interstate 95 Friday and grinned in the late autumn sun.
“Welcome to Stratford,” he said to a crowd of dignitaries and tradesmen assembled for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting. “Easy on. Easy off.”
For decades, of course, such has not been the case.
The new ramp, the first of two which will complete the interchange at Exit 33 of I-95, helps to correct a design quirk dating back to the days when there were tolls on state highways.
A toll plaza stood on I-95 near exit 33, so to keep drivers from bypassing the toll by quickly getting on and off the highway, the northbound on-ramp and southbound off-ramp were never built.
The state later eliminated highway tolls two years after seven people were killed in a fiery crash when a tractor trailer driver failed to slow down at the Stratford plaza and plowed into a line of waiting vehicles.
Even though tolls went away, the ramps did not get built.
The effort to complete the interchange goes back more than 20 years.
One of its leading figures, former mayor John Harkins, was recognized by many speaking but couldn’t attend because he was at a daughter’s wedding in Indiana, according to Mayor Laura Hoydick.
Vehicles speeding by on Ferry Boulevard thronged the road throughout Friday’s ceremony, with many drivers honking their horns in possible approval.
“As you can see it’s a busy area,” the mayor said. “There’s a lot of traffic, which is good. This will help move traffic.”
“This is an exciting day for us in Stratford,” Hoydick said. “This has been a long time coming.”
The project had some powerful opponents, including former state house speaker James Amann, of Milford, who said businesses there would get less traffic once the ramps were completed.
Gresko, who worked for Amann, acknowledged the resistance during the ceremony.
“We had some tough opposition to this over the years, and I will just leave it at that,” he said. “I’m just glad we were able to persevere and get this over the finish line. I’m looking forward to the economic development that will come from this.”
Afterward, Gresko said that the lack of a complete interchange meant “it was a parking lot going through Devon (in Milford).”
“We had colleagues there that did surveys that said people wanted exit 33 so that they could get in and out of their streets and go to businesses,” he said.
State Rep. Phil Young, D-Stratford, said he used to run the Bridge House restaurant across the bridge in Devon and high traffic did not necessarily mean more business.
“Come in on a Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock. There was not a person in there, but you couldn’t get in because of the trucks going by,” he said. “People didn’t want to get into all that traffic.”
State Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, said the new interchange “marks a very successful conclusion to a process long in the making.”
Amy Jackson-Grove, division administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, said there will be a lot more projects coming Connecticut’s way thanks to the recent infrastructure bill.
“Get ready for the next five years,” she said. “Get your seatbelt on. There’s a lot of money coming to Connecticut.”
State Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti pegged the number at $5 billion over the next five years — at least.
“That’s the minimum that we’re starting out with,” he said. “Add to that what we’re going to be able to go after in competitive grants that will keep projects like this moving along and accelerating them going through.”
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Stratford has new exit 33 on-ramp after decades-long fight - CT Post
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