Ground will be broken July 22 on long-awaited Phase 2 of the Downtown Crossing project. This second installment of the city’s long-term, $55 million infrastructure project will connect Orange Street to South Orange Street and enhance access to the downtown business district.
“In 18 months you’ll be able to travel southbound on Orange Street all the way to the train [Union] station, and northbound from the train station all the way to downtown,” explained city Interim Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli.
The second step in the long-term project is a new vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian crossing that re-establishes the Orange Street connection severed a half-century ago by the construction of the section of Route 34 known as the Oak Street Connector.
That project was one element of the city’s mid-20th century urban-renewal transformation that razed the Oak Street neighborhood and created the Route 34 mini-highway to nowhere. Now that center-city scar will be at least sutured.
The contractor for the project is C.F. Fucci Construction of New Haven.
Piscitelli said he expects construction impacts from the project to be minimal throughout the remainder of calendar 2019. However, it will be greater in 2020 when construction swings into high gear, including “heavy impacts in and around the Coliseum, Knights of Columbus, the police station — that area,” he said.
The 18-month project is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2021, Piscitelli said.
Phase 1 of the project, including the rebuilding of the College Street bridge and development of 100 College Street (Alexion offices), was completed in 2016.
Phase 3, which will connect Temple Street across Route 34 to Congress Avenue, will begin construction at the beginning of 2021 and is expected to wrap up some time in 2022.
Funding for the seven-year, $55 million Downtown Crossing project comes from a mix of state, federal and local funding sources.
