By Anne White
On March 31, 2025, excavators will descend on the intersection of Glenville Street and Glen Ridge Road, marking the beginning of a long-anticipated project to resuscitate one of Greenwich’s most burdened thoroughfares. The Glenville Corridor, a modest 1,500-foot artery winding through a once industrial enclave, has for decades borne the accumulated weight of shifting demographics, sprawling development, and modern congestion.
The Town of Greenwich’s Department of Public Works (DPW), after years of planning and public negotiation, will begin construction that promises not only traffic improvements, but an overdue reckoning with the corridor’s past. The project, which will proceed eastward toward Weaver Street over the span of a year, is the result of a carefully constructed timeline that began not with construction drawings, but with a letter—one issued by the Connecticut Department of Transportation in January 2019. That letter authorized design funding through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ), a federal initiative aimed at reducing vehicle emissions and improving commuter conditions.
What followed over the next half-decade was a slow, procedural unraveling. On March 20, 2019, officials hosted the first of three public meetings. A corridor walk audit was conducted that same day—residents, engineers, and town leaders inspecting the pavement, crossings, and curbs, documenting the old scars of a neighborhood formed by necessity more than design. In May and again in September, meetings continued, with diagrams shared, traffic patterns debated, and feedback collected. Municipal Improvement approval was granted by the Board of Selectmen in November 2020, followed by final site plan approval by the Planning and Zoning Commission weeks later. Then, the pandemic arrived.
In an interview, First Selectman Fred Camillo described the delay. “The success of the Glenville Corridor project can be attributed to our team here at Town Hall and DPW back in 2020,” he said. “They secured the approval and funding… then there were a few people who objected on the west side regarding trees that were going to be removed—even though there were many more we were going to be replacing—so we put the project off for a year. And then the pandemic was in full swing and we had to re-bid everything because the costs went through the roof.”
According to the Town of Greenwich’s records, the project was reauthorized with construction funding in August 2023, allowing DPW to reassemble the plan under new fiscal conditions.
The corridor itself has always existed at a strange intersection—geographically, economically, historically. It once carried workers to the mills that lined the Byram River; today, it funnels parents, trucks, and commuters from schools on King Street and Riversville Road toward I-684 and the Merritt Parkway. It is not a long stretch. But it is essential.
The proposed improvements are exacting. Each intersection along the route will be reengineered: new turn lanes, updated signal equipment, sidewalk extensions, ADA- compliant ramps, and pedestrian crosswalks designed to protect those who walk in a neighborhood that was not really built for walking. The entrance to the shopping plaza will be widened. The tricky geometry near the Sunoco station and Webster Bank will be rationalized with realigned traffic islands and newly signalized exits. The parking area in front of Glenville Pizza— once a defacto waiting zone for parents and delivery drivers— will be removed to make space for a safer turning lane.
The Town’s Public Works team has worked closely with the Glenville Neighborhood Task force, incorporating aesthetic improvements such as decorative light posts and updated guide rails to preserve the corridor’s visual coherence. It is a corridor, after all, not a highway. It connects rather than divides.
That such a short stretch of roadway has taken this long to address speaks less to neglect than to the layers of process required to move a public project forward in a community with strong opinions and strict oversight. It also speaks to the town’s evolution. The mills are gone. The traffic has multiplied. The street remains. Come Monday, jackhammers will echo through Glenville again—not to dismantle, but to remake. The corridor’s new design is not radical. It is restorative.
Motorists are advised to anticipate periodic lane closures, detours, and slower travel times throughout the year-long construction period. As work progresses eastward from Glen Ridge Road to Weaver Street, traffic along the heavily used Glenville Corridor will be impacted, particularly during peak commuting hours. The Department of Public Works encourages drivers to plan alternate routes when possible and to allow extra travel time. While temporary disruptions are expected, the Town of Greenwich emphasizes that the long-term benefits—improved traffic flow, enhanced pedestrian access, and increased safety—will serve the community for decades to come.
