Himes says infrastructure package will improve roads, rails, bridges

When U.S. Rep. Jim Himes wanted to get the biggest infrastructure package since the Eisenhower Interstate construction to President Biden's desk he jumped on his bike and rode through and beyond the borders of the Fourth District to generate support.

Now a year and half later, the congressman says, "It's going to do a lot."

"It is a cornucopia of modernization in the Fourth District," added Himes, a Democrat from Greenwich, regarding the $1.2 trillion package that was approved in 2021.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Hartford) stated two years ago that Connecticut would annex more than $5 billion in five years. The state has not had such a comprehensive renovation program since then-Gov. William O’Neill (D-East Hampton) responded to the 1983 collapse of the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich.

In a phone interview with Patch.com, Himes remarked, "There are a lot of congestion projects on I-95" in the infrastructure package.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz (D-Middletown) said during a talk in 2011 when she was running for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, that she had heard that an executive traveling to Fairfield County to interview for a job decided not to even consider it after seeing the traffic on Interstate-95 move at the pace of the Stamford Downtown Parade Spectacular.

Himes said, "I talk to business leaders in the Fourth District all the time, and at the top of their list of complaints is how hard it is to get around at rush hour. Fairfield County is the part of the state that is really growing. If we can address that number one issue, we will be that much more attractive."

The checklist also includes the resurfacing of bridges on the Schuyler Merritt Parkway – named after a Republican former congressman from the Fourth District - and improvements to the interchange between the Merritt and Route 7.

If traffic congestion is issue 1A, then apparently crumbling roads is issue 1B.

Gary Rose, the chairman of the Government Department at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, wrote in his 2019 book "Connecticut In Crisis" that a 2017 national engineering study rated Connecticut’s roads as the worst in the 50 states.

Himes said there is significant funding for road repaving.

The package also will address rail improvements.

The Fairfield County Gold Coast can’t function without commuter service. You can be at Neat Coffee in Darien around 8 a.m. on a weekday and hear the trains go by at least three times in less than 43 minutes.

Himes commented, "In addition to making the trains faster and more efficient, I think we can also address the parking. One of the deterrents to people taking the trains is the lack of parking, although that might not be as big a problem with the addition in the last three years of work-from-home."

Elsewhere, the congressman said federal money already is being used on the Walk Bridge renovations in Norwalk. There will be work on the Saugatuck River Bridge in Westport - an "antique" from 1894 - which is the oldest movable bridge in Connecticut. Dredging will be done along Southport Harbor at the mouth of the Mill River in Fairfield.

The states and municipalities heavily rely on the federal government to build and maintain their roads and bridges.

In 1981 when asked about then-President Ronald Reagan’s New Federalism goal of turning more costs back to the states and municipalities, former New York City Mayor John Lindsay said, "I think it is a worthy discussion, I think there are places where it can happen. I will tell you one place where it will not happen is with federal transportation funds. The states and cities alone cannot afford to do those projects."

Himes remarked, "On the big projects, you primarily have federal funds, but they do require a state and local contribution. It can be as much as 90 percent federal and 10 percent state and local."

The infrastructure projects appear to be long overdue.

For nearly 20 years New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has been banging the cymbal for a comprehensive plan.

For example, in 2015 he told CNBC said the United States had been as "Dumb as we want to be" in neglecting its road, railways and airports, which were inferior to those in many developed countries.

Himes said there also if funding for improved flood relief.

For example, Representative Town Meeting member Sal Liccione said flooding has increased in Westport’s downtown in recent years as a result of "climate change." He hopes that the town can secure federal money to address that issue.

Additionally, Liccione noted that Westport already had garnered $450,000 from the infrastructure package for a traffic safety study.

During her campaign two years ago, Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons, a Democrat, told Patch.com that, "We also need to add more broadband and Wi-Fi and have flexible co-working stations downtown."

Putting the topic in context, Himes said, "Most of Connecticut is pretty-well wired with broadband. However, there is substantial funding for the limited areas in Connecticut where there is no broadband."

Adding $5 billion on infrastructure in Connecticut, which has had a financially insufficient special transportation fund sounds like a lot of money.

However, an ad-hoc committee appointed in 2015 by former Gov. Dannel Malloy (D-Essex) called for $100 billion in infrastructure improvements over 30 years. The federal infrastructure package will only cover a portion of that.

Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich) in 2019, his first year in office, sought a tolls program to address a meager special transportation fund. Verbal bricks were thrown at the governor at protest rallies across the state. The plan never got to a vote in the General Assembly and was discarded in February 2020.

Simmons, who was then the state representative from the 144th District, noted in a 2021 interview with Patch.com that she supported adding tolls because the state’s special transportation fund was severely underfunded.

Himes acknowledged, "I don’t think that the infrastructure bill is going to solve all of our problems in my area of Connecticut. My area of Connecticut is the one that is growing. I had to give up 20,000 constituents in the last redistricting. If we continue to grow, the needs are not going to go away."