Engineers working on a project to redesign Interstate 84 through much of Hartford have taken two project models off the table — a tunnel and an elevated highway.
Instead, Department of Transportation engineers will focus on a ground-level design with “capping” that would enable vehicle, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic to pass over the interstate.
“We’re really starting to add the fine details,” said Michael Morehouse, an engineer with the firm Fitzgerald & Halliday Inc.
Many of the options presented during a forum on the project Tuesday included lowering the highway and capping them with a roughly 20-foot-tall structure that would limit air and noise pollution to surrounding neighborhoods, as well as provide an overhead path from one side of the highway to the other.
Options presented included capping various portions of the highway after the existing neighboring roads have been lowered to ground level.
Stretches of capping, starting from roughly Broad Street, ranged from about 950 feet to about 3,000 feet, with costs ranging from $325 million to $1.65 billion.
Support from the Public Advisory Committee, which includes members from local and regional authorities, major employers, neighborhood groups, planning experts, and advocacy groups, dwindled as the capping options were extended further west.
Although the capping can’t support larger structures, it can support parking and a linear park. Some roads, such as Broad Street, Asylum Street, Laurel Street, Sigourney Street, and Capital Avenue, would be raised to the level of the capping to reroute over the highway, enabling traffic to cross from one side of I-84 to the other.
Proponents of capping said Tuesday that the construction would increase property values for lots adjacent to the highway due to a reduction of noise and air pollution.
The adjacent railroad would be lowered as well and with all the adjustments, engineers said there would be space made available for economic development, in addition to streamlining traffic.
Other designs call for changing left lane exits to right lane exits, providing direct connections to city streets, including Sisson Avenue, Laurel Street, and Capital Avenue.
Although they would require routine maintenance, the new roads would be expected to last 75 to 100 years.
Engineers continue to study environmental and financial impacts, as well as the effects of noise and air pollution.
At this point, no plans have been finalized. The design phase of the project is expected to be completed close to 2020 and construction is expected to be completed around 2027.
These dates are approximate and will be updated as the project progresses.
