Elizabeth Street at Route 34 (Main Street) in front of Derby City Hall.
DERBY – The completion date of the Route 34 widening project has been pushed to June 2025, officials from the state Department of Transportation (DOT) said on Wednesday (Oct. 16).
The state initially said the $18.7 million project would be done this month.
DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan said the delay is due to a damaged aqueduct under the road near Home Depot at 117 Main St. Route 34 is a state road called Main Street locally.
Morgan said the old, abandoned aqueduct did not show up on any of the construction plans.
Contractors are in the process of digging up and filling the void under the road presented by the empty aqueduct. Not doing so could undermine the integrity of the road, officials said.
“The contractor has been assigned the work to fill the space and provide structural integrity to the remaining voids by filling this space with flowable fill materials,” Morgan said. “This is the primary cause of the project completion delay.”
Morgan said the aqueduct issue must be dealt with before finishing the final list of things to do. Some of the final items will have to wait since winter is close.
Route 34 at the intersection with the Derby-Shelton bridge.
Morgan said in addition to the aqueduct repairs, a punch list of items still needed to be complete include:
*Full-depth roadway reconstruction (final paving)
*Sidewalk work
*Spot drainage improvements
*Various streetscape improvements.
Driving through the construction zone there are still visible signs of unfinished brick sidewalks on Elizabeth Street side, unpaved roads, orange cones, ripped up intersections, raised manhole covers – and lots of bumps.
The widening project began in April 2022 and includes creation of additional lanes, changed traffic patterns on side streets, new sidewalks and new parking downtown. The widening project is geared to improve traffic flow on Route 34, a thoroughfare that runs from Interstate 84 in Newtown to Interstate 95 in New Haven.
Linda Fusco, chief of staff for Mayor Joe DiMartino, said she learned about the project delay during an Oct. 9 meeting with DOT officials.
“DOT doesn’t want to take a chance and sign off on the project piecemeal,” Fusco said.
Fusco said all the downtown streets are open to through traffic while construction is ongoing.
Morgan said with any major construction project, unexpected issues can pop up.
“Unforeseen issues can occur on projects, and we appreciate the patience of residents and businesses as we work to get this project completed as quickly as we can,” Morgan said.
Fusco said the finished product will be worth the wait.
“I think the DOT is being cautious with the (new completion date) and I personally don’t think it’s going to take that long,” Fusco said.
Downtown Derby has been a construction zone since April 2021, when a state contractor started a $6.3 million renovation of the Derby-Shelton bridge, which connects Route 34 in Derby to Route 110 in Shelton.
Morgan did not have an exact completion date for that project, but said a ribbon cutting is expected to be scheduled for the end of October.
ROUTE 34 IS OPEN IN OXFORD
Photos from Gov. Lamont's office on social media showed the flood damaged section of Route 34 in Oxford after Aug. 18 and on Oct. 16
In other Route 34 news, the portion of the road in Oxford damaged during the August floods reopened for traffic today (Oct. 16). Contractors from the DOT installed a temporary bridge, Gov. Ned Lamont announced.
The road had been closed in both directions at the intersection with Loughlin Road in Oxford near the Stevenson Dam since Aug. 18. Click here for drone footage of the opened road.
The DOT had not expected to open the bridge until Oct. 31.
