Contributed
An illustration of the Main Street project showing the area not from the Derby-Shelton bridge.
DERBY — The Derby Main Street widening project will go out to bid Sept. 1, the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments announced Tuesday in a “major step forward” for the long gestating project.
“This long-awaited effort will create better access to downtown Derby and enhance economic development opportunities by improving roadway capacity, parking layout and pedestrian safety,” NVCOG said in a statement.
Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2022. The cost estimate is $26 million.
The project includes the complete reconstruction of Derby’s Main Street, from the Derby-Shelton bridge (a $6.3 million renovation project is currently underway on the bridge) to the Route 8 ramps.
Derby’s Main Street is a state-owned road also known as state Route 34. It will be widened to create two through lanes in each direction, separated by a center median, according to a description posted on the NVCOG website.
NVCOG is managing the project. The bids will be advertised and awarded by the State of Connecticut.
The state ultimately decides when a shovel goes in the ground.
Dedicated turning lanes will be added at intersections, and there will be improvements made to traffic signals, all to improve traffic flow on the heavily-traveled road. The plans call for aesthetic improvements, such as decorative lighting, trees, granite curbing and brick pavers in certain spots.
The project has been in the planning stages for at least three different mayoral administrations. Each mayor has been adamant about keeping Derby’s Main Street from becoming a four-lane highway, like the road is in east Derby. The widened road will include “refuge islands” in the middle to make it easier for pedestrians to cross the road.
The long-term hope locally is to see redevelopment on both sides of Main StreetRoute 34 through downtown. Two redevelopment projects — a mixed-use residential development project and a straight-ahead residential project — have been approved on the south side of Main Street. Construction hasn’t started on the projects yet.
An office building on Elizabeth Street downtown was recently given the green light to convert into apartments. Another redevelopment application downtown for 67 Minverva St. is expected to be filed with the city’s planning and zoning commission soon.
Alderman Rob Hyder is campaign manager for Mayor Rich Dziekan, who is running for re-election in November. He said the pieces are falling into place for true, transit-oriented development in Derby.
In an email, Hyder said that in addition to four development projects downtown, the city is also hoping the state gets a federal “Raise Grant” to go toward the Derby train station for improvements such as “heated platforms, pedestrian upgrades, electric vehicle charging stations and enhanced lighting.” Click here for information on the federal Raise Grant program.
Regarding the Main Street widening project, Hyder said the project is “long overdue and will be a shot in the arm to kickstart our redevelopment concept,” Hyder said. “We have been at the mercy of the State of Connecticut for this project to begin. Now that we have reached the top of the state’s list and it is ready to go out to bid, we could not be more eager to get a shovel in the ground.”
Any Valley Indy story about redevelopment in downtown Derby or the Main Street widening project tends to elicit two reactions on Valley social media:
1. I’ll believe it when I see it
2. Election-year promises
The Valley Indy asked Dziekan’s campaign to respond to such reactions.
“Yes, we are two months from an election, but with the municipal election cycle every two years in Derby, every other year is an election year,” Hyder said. “Mayor Dziekan’s administration has put in a lot of hard work to get the city of Derby positioned where we are today. Redevelopment in downtown Derby has been a political hot potato for decades, but we have not gone into an election cycle before with actual approved applications from Planning & Zoning, as well as approvals from the Board of Aldermen/Alderwomen,” he said. “Once these projects come to fruition, and we are now actually seeing it in real time, the taxpayer burden will no longer fall solely on our homeowners.”
Dziekan, a Republican two-term incumbent mayor, is being challenged this year by Alderman Joseph DiMartino, a Democrat.
“We’re thrilled that the process is finally beginning,” Linda Fusco, DiMartino’s campaign manager, said in an email. “All of us here in Derby deserve a more functional main thoroughfare as well as a more vibrant downtown that not only brings in businesses and residents but a wider tax base as well. Joe and his team look forward to working with the State and the high bidder to get this most important project done. I can’t help thinking that if we didn’t have an absentee mayor, he might have encouraged the State to move along a bit faster!”
Hyder has previously addressed statements saying Dziekan is an absentee mayor.
The bid date and start date for the widening project has changed several times over the years.
In June 2020 the shovel-in-the-ground start date was spring 2021. In February 2021 the date to advertise the project for bids was July 2021 with construction to start in September.
At a meeting in February 2021, Rick Dunne, a Derby resident who is the executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, said that it took a long time to figure out, coordinate and relocate the many underground utilities that needed to be moved.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated a federal transportation grant as $75 million.
