A special meeting organized by state Rep. Michael Bocchino brought residents and stakeholders of the Old Greenwich Railroad Station rehab project to the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center for an update on the construction.
Residents drew attention to unsafe conditions and a lack of information about the project’s status.
Bocchino said that while the project is causing some chaos, confusion, and what some call unpleasant aesthetics, he pledged that the community will get through it together.
“We’re currently in stage two and about 90 percent complete,” said Stacey Epps, a project engineer with the state’s Department of Transportation. After stage two is finished, there are five more stages to be tackled.
With barriers now underneath the Sound Beach Avenue Bridge, residents also brought up the walkway that they say isn’t as safe as it used to be.
But the DOT clarified that during the current phase of the project, the bridge barriers were there for safety reasons.
“The barriers are there to protect pedestrians from the impact of that center structure,” said Epps. “It’s not to protect the structure.”
While public information updates on the project are updated weekly on its dedicated website (OldGreenwichRRStationBridgeRehab.com), residents also asked for more clarity and communication on what to expect for improvements in the future.
There is no information on the site, however, regarding the seven stages of the rehab process.
“I think the fallacy here is that you don’t recognize that this is a community facility,” said Old Greenwich resident Michael Abrahams.
Abrahams, along with other locals in the crowd, said if it wasn’t for a makeshift 8-and-a-half-by-11 paper sign at the station, they wouldn’t have even known of the meeting.
“It’s not like a highway project,” said Abrahams. “You have all of the audience right there, virtually every day at the station. I think it’s really an opportunity for you to exploit. I think it would be a very minimal effort to do that.”
Bocchino took advantage of having numerous elected officials and program directors, including Greenwich Police Traffic Technician Roger Drenth, at the meeting, and called for a compromise to bring down the traffic speeds around the bridge.
“Pedestrian safety is a real issue,” said Bocchino. “It’s one that I’m certain you’ll be taking a hard look at. If you’re going to have up a construction speed limit sign, is there a way for us on the town side to put up a radar speed sign?”
Drenth said that the traffic division would get a radar sign up, making drivers aware of both the 25 m.p.h. speed limit and their current speed.
“At least for the sake of kids going into school soon, it would slow the traffic down a little bit,” Bocchino added. “And for the pedestrians that are there.”
The addition of 100 parking spaces at the train station parking lot is about a 25 percent increase, according to the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Public Works Engineering Division James W. Michel. A total of 400 spots will be available on the south side.
Epps said that while each stage or phase takes roughly about seven months, a projected completion date of the rehab project is still slated for July 2018.
