Sen. Kelly: Celebrate Main Street Opening; But More Work Needed.

Hartford, CT – State Senator Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford) released the following statement today re: Rte 113 ribbon cutting.

“Today, I celebrate the opening of Main Street, however, the safety improvements for travel on the ground is not fully complete. As part of the airport safety improvements our Town was promised a road that didn’t flood by the federal government. Unfortunately signs posted at the new road read “Road Floods”.

“For the past year, I worked tirelessly on behalf of the residents to make sure the Route 113 project is done properly. There were many road blocks and frustrations.

“A huge win was working with Commissioner Redeker to elevate the new road to with stand a 5 year storm surge. Original plans had the road sitting too low with massive potential for flooding. While I am encouraged with this improvement there is still reason for concern.

“In order to keep the road from future flooding I will continue to push for the state to create natural buffers to remediate storm surge. I have identified existing state funding and resources to do this. While the reopening of Main Street is an important event to be recognized, the fulfillment of a promised road that doesn’t flood must also be realized and the sign “Road Floods” removed, before we can say this project is done.

Background:

The road project is part of a larger safety improvement project, which includes an Engineered Materials Arresting System at Sikorsky Memorial Airport designed to stop a plane that overshoots the runway. That part of the project will be completed later this fall.

For additional information about this project, please visit www.sikorskyairportproject.com
For additional information about airport Engineered Materials Arresting Systems, please visit https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=13754