Super 7 Opposed Long Enough

State Senator Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, has introduced legislation -- SB 423 --that Requires the state Department of Transportation to develop a timeline for construction completion of the Super 7 Highway from Norwalk to Danbury.

Building the highway has been talked about for decades. Those opposed to building the highway rally to stop the project whenever the proponents get a little traction. Many opponents have deep pockets, which enable them to hire lawyers, engineers and scientists to bolster their arguments against the highway.

Opponents of the highway, mostly residents and elected officials from Wilton, Ridgefield and Redding, are preparing to mount another campaign to again stall the much needed north-south connection between the two Fairfield county Cities.

Victor Demasi, a Redding resident and the 1980's leader of Citizens for a Sensible 7, is confident the opponents that have fought the highway for 50 years can do it again.

Marilyn Gould, executive director of the Wilton Historical Society and a member of Citizens for Balanced Environment and Transportation, which opposed Super 7 during the 1980s says money is already being collected to campaign against the highway again.

Maryanne Guitar, a former Redding first selectwoman and author of a book about how to can legally block construction projects, says it will be easier to stop the highway now with the internet and blogs.

The state-owned right-of-way is a narrow 890-acre open-space corridor that snakes along the Norwalk River through Ridgefield, Redding and Wilton. State Representative Antonietta Boucher, R-Wilton, has proposed the land be preserved as open space.

Senator Duff believes those speaking out against the Super 7 Highway are "a vocal minority."

For Duff the issue is simple -- there's a need for an expanded transportation corridor between Danbury and Norwalk that is not going away and will continue to grow. The current widening of the existing Route 7 he calls "a waste of money" because it's creating a road that will be filled to capacity as soon as it's finished.

The people who don't realize this, he said, have their heads in the sand. Arguments against it, he said, are red herrings.

"You cannot continue to deny the inevitable," he said.

I'm with Senator Duff on this on. Let's build Super 7 and improve our ability to drive between Norwalk and Danbury. Fifty years is long enough to debate building a highway. If anyone has any doubt about whether the highway is needed, well just drive between Danbury and Norwalk on Route 7 sometime.

What do you say? Shall we build the highway or allow traffic to become even more gridlocked.

Also posted at The Norwalk Blog.

Comments

[Leon J Karvelis Jr]

While I can understand the frustration proponents feel about Super 7, it is hardly the solution that will resolve this region's transportation problems. Instead, Metro-North and the towns affected must change the Danbury-Norwalk spur into a real passenger-freight rail line. The Toonerville Trolley approach of the last 100 years on this line, with its antiquated equipment, lousy schedules and poor railbed design are pushing people and freight onto Route 7. Turning Fairfield County into LA County is not an acceptable solution. I can assure you that Wilton will be joined by Redding and Ridgefield in fighting a Super 7 extension as far as necessary to kill this polluting, visual eyesore once and for all. You should encourage the state to use the roadway right of way that it owns to upgrade and modernize the RR spur and extend it to New Milford to make it a true economic asset to this region, rather than a sparsely used slow ride to NYC. And you are right in one respect: the towns should create ample low-cost parking space for all so that they can abandon their vehicles and use mass transit efficiently.

[bird dog]

Almost always agree with you, but I think you are wrong on this. Expanding roads expands development. If people don't want more development in their area, the best way to do it is to stop highways. The only reason northwest CT is lovely is that Super 7 was blocked. Remember the "Long Island Expressway Effect": new highways will fill to capacity in 10 years. My opinion is that the folks of Wilton and Redding are acting in the fine, cranky, Yankee way.

[Matt]

MORE gridlocked? Is this possible?

Build it. Please.

[GMR]

Super 7 should have been built long ago. It's crazy that Wilton can keep stopping the road. Wilton only allows multi-acre zoning throughout most of its town. So property there is very expensive. Hey, it's their right to set the zoning regs I guess. But then Wilton tries to stop people from driving through, after those people are priced out of the Wilton market. Heck, maybe the poor could take the train. Oh, except Wilton won't allow non Wiltonians to park there.

Wilton would rather not be surrounded by other towns I guess.