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Politics & Government

Preserving Our Parkway

State officials and area advocates are working to protect and preserve the Merritt Parkway, considered by many a national treasure and local gem.

Some might get their kicks on Route 66, but there’s nothing like the Merritt Parkway.

And while Richard Shindell’s song might be only one dedicated to the road, the historic route has fallen into disrepair as of late. Benign neglect turned into weakening infrastructure, to the point that the Merritt earned a spot on the list of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust for Historic Places.

Now some are humming with happiness about recent improvements taking place along the storied parkway. Its art deco bridges and guardian-like trees are slowly undergoing a makeover.

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“It’s a state treasure, and national treasure,” said Jill Smyth, executive director for the Merritt Parkway Conservancy.

The parkway was named for Congressman Schulyer Merritt who represented the southwestern part of Connecticut, according to the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, MPC.

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“This great highway is not being constructed primarily for rapid transit but for pleasant transit,” Merritt said during a July 1934 groundbreaking ceremony. “This county [Fairfield County] is fortunate in having such beautiful backcountry and it is our great duty to see that these beauties are preserved.”

But with the road over capacity now, there are few commuters who would call the road pleasant. Some commuters complain of narrow lanes, perennially closed shoulders, and a low median. As such recent projects aim to transform the road into its former lyrical beauty. 

“It’s our signature project,” said Mary K Baier, supervising engineer with the Connecticut Department of Transportation. “Contrary to what people believe, we love the parkway. We all consider it an honor and a privilege to work on it.”

For Baier, the road might just be in her DNA.

Her grandfather worked as a surveyor during the parkway's construction. And long before the project was finished he and Baier’s grandmother used to drive along the unopened road to see how far they could get.

The work will also enhance the road’s safety, said Kevin Nursick, DOT spokesperson.

In Fairfield and Trumbull, the DOT is supervising resurfacing projects as well as other safety improvements and enhancements. The project will extend from the Congress Street overpass in Fairfield to Exit 52 in Trumbull. It will include the restoration of 13 historic bridges with a complete bridge replacement over the Mill River between Exits 44 and 46 in Fairfield.

“It’ a delicate balance because 70,000 cars a day use the system,” Baier said. “We have to ask how do we restore the parkway and make it safer for today’s cars and today’s speed.”

MPC hired a landscape architect firm to help determine which trees need to come down from the median or alongside the shoulder. When the project is completed late summer 2012, there will be an 18-foot clear zone on either side of the parkway. That means no trees, no fixed barriers. Road signs are designed to break away if hit by a vehicle. 

In addition, MPC received a grant to hire a specialist on historic bridges.

“You have to be careful when cleaning the bridges because of the historic concrete,” Smyth said. “You just can’t go in there and scrub away. You have to preserve the details on the bridges.”

To ensure the bridges will be structurally sound, but still aesthetically pleasing engineers working with DOT took core samples of the concrete from each bridge. Engineers analyzed the samples to determine the proper mix of cement and aggregate.

To get the right look engineers are hand-mixing the concrete in some cases before patching the bridges, Baier said. 

“It changed our methodology and took us back to the 1920s and 1930s,” Baier said. “It’s like forensic engineering at this point.”

During the parkway’s construction, Highway Commissioner John A. MacDonald decided to use concrete to save money. Connecticut residents cried foul because they wanted the bridges to mirror the stone faced bridges in Westchester, Smyth said.

“Each bridge is different so it wouldn’t be a monotonous drive,” she said, adding her favorite is the Merwins Lane Bridge in Westport.

The bridge’s ironwork is a tangle of butterflies, spider webs and cobwebs. Kenneth Lynch, who designed the bridge, also designed the gargoyles perched on New York City’s famed Chrysler building.

For Baier, it’s the Burr Street Bridge in Fairfield that beckons.

“It holds a special place in my heart because its devoted to the surveyors,” she said, adding that its special to work on something her ancestors built and maintained. In addition to her grandfather, three uncles worked on the Merritt.

The road, the state’s first multi-lane median divided highway, linked New York's Hutchinson Parkway with towns in Fairfield County, according to the MPC.

At first the parkway alleviated traffic on US Route 1, or the Boston Post Road, which had reached capacity by the mid 1920s.

Cars crowd the road today. Many come from out of state, which was always the case, according to DOT. Traffic surveys from the 1920s revealed most cars on the Post Road actually started in New York State and beyond.

When the construction on the Merritt began the nation was mired in a depression. The state relished the chance to take on the public works project because it offered jobs for unemployed and unskilled workers. At the time it was the largest public works project in the Nutmeg State, coming with a $21 million price tag.

Building it also meant Connecticut stood to receive federal funds.

That in turn would stimulate the state’s economy since grading, road laying, bridge building, landscaping. More than 2,000 people worked on the six-year-long project.

However, contrary to popular belief, the parkway wasn’t a Works Progress Administration project.

Still, some find echoes of that Depression-era project history in current improvement plans. The American Reinvestment and Redevelopment Act, otherwise known as the Stimulus Act, sent $70 million to Connecticut to help refurbish the road.

After the Trumbull to Fairfield corridor project is complete, DOT will begin a section near Stamford and the East Rock overpass in Norwalk. Workers have already made wax castings of the state seals that adorn the bridge.

And that too will take time, Baier said.

“I could do it a lot faster if I could close the highway,” Baier said. “But this is a conservancy project too.”

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