Organizations’ Agenda Deserves Attention When Reviewing Report on 84 Widening Project

No one should be surprised that a report from the ConnPIRG Education Fund and the Frontier Group takes a dim view of the Interstate 84 expansion project in Danbury, as reported by Hearst Media on April 19, 2017. A quick scan of the report’s table of contents shows that the groups’ agenda goes against any type of highway expansion. The report has sections titled “Highway Expansion Doesn’t Solve Our Transportation Problems,” “Highway Expansion Takes Money from Other Transportation Priorities,” and “Highway Expansion Damages Communities and the Environment.” Even before these groups set their sights on it, the Danbury expansion never had a chance.

The report notes Connecticut’s fiscal difficulties and loss of businesses, but ignores the role that the state’s traffic and congested highways have played in these problems. In a release in November, Connecticut Business and Industry Association Assistant Counsel Eric Gjede said, “Connecticut’s highways and roads are a critical economic driver. Lawmakers attempting to jump start the state’s economy must prioritize our roads when investing transportation resources to ensure our people and products get safely to their destinations.”

This is particularly true on I-84 in Danbury. The ConnPIRG report correctly notes that I-84 is a key transportation link that suffers from congestion problems and is one of the busiest roadways in the state. But instead of seeing this information as a reason the highway needs expansion and improvement, ConnPIRG argues that traffic has not increased fast enough (5 percent between 2000 and 2015) to warrant a highway expansion.

It’s obvious the writers of this report have not spent much, if any time traveling I-84 in Danbury. They have not sat in the traffic bottlenecks or been among the long lines of vehicles waiting to get onto the highway. They have not witnessed the accidents these problems cause, or recognize that improving roadway safety is one of the driving factors behind this expansion project. They also fail to take into account that planning for this project started in the 1990s. It has been well thought out, well researched, and is part of an overall plan to address congestion on I-84 that stretched from the New York border to Waterbury.

The ConnPIRG report wants to see the highway money diverted to public transportation even after acknowledging that Connecticut is planning $30 million in improvements to the Danbury Line. Connecticut’s budget problems, it says, may force the state to reconsider which projects it funds and assumes that funding for rail improvements would land on the chopping block. To ConnPIRG, the mere possibility that transportation priorities could be revisited is reason enough to scrap the I-84 project.

ConnPIRG is an organization that wants to direct public policy so people’s lives conform to the lifestyle it approves. This includes adhering to its environmental agenda by finding ways to increase the use of public transportation and reduce fossil fuel emissions. In pursuing this, however, it ignores the realities that commuters in Danbury deal with on a daily basis.

For safety and economic reasons, the I-84 widening project in Danbury is something that needs to be done sooner than later. We will continue working for improvements to railway infrastructure that will hopefully entice more people to use public transportation, but we will not allow an organization’s agenda to deter us from making the roadway improvements that are so desperately needed.

Senator Michael McLachlan (R-24) represents the communities of Bethel, Danbury, New Fairfield, and Sherman.