A $5.8 million road project is underway in the Town of Seymour.
SEYMOUR — A $5.8 million project to improve traffic flow and safety on Route 67 started earlier this month.
“The Route 67 Spot Improvement Project” encompasses about 2,400 feet (almost half a mile) of busy Route 67, spanning west from Klarides Village and heading east to the Bank Street bridge.
The road is a major commercial corridor that connects Oxford and Seymour and provides access to Route 8, a state highway.
The improvements call for milling and paving of the road, widening of a portion of the road to alleviate traffic congestion, crosswalk and traffic signal improvements, installation of new sidewalks, new curbing and new street lighting.
Route 67 is a state road called Bank Street locally.
The construction project is being funded by state and federal dollars. The state hired Guerrera Construction of Oxford for the job.
The project is slated for completion in July 2025, according to Bryan Nesteriak, Seymour’s town engineer.
Construction started March 13 with the closure of Martha Street. Detours for that area are expected to be in place for the next two to three months.
In an effort to combat traffic jams, the section of Route 67 that merges from two lanes into one at Martha Street will be widened, creating two lanes that will be extended up to the Walgreens store at 144 Bank St.
About 20,000 vehicles travel the targeted portion of Route 67 every day, according to the state Department of Transportation.
There were 29 accidents within the stretch between January 2016 and December 2018, according to the University of Connecticut’s Crash Data Repository. None were fatal.
Twelve of those crashes were rear-end collisions at the Bank Street/Franklin Street intersection, where the two lanes of Route 67 become one lane near Martha Street.
“The race to merge as you approach Martha Street will be eliminated,” said Mike Joyce of SLR International Corporation. Joyce is one of the engineers involved in the project’s design.
An existing right-turn only lane at Route 67 at Walgreens will be made longer in an effort to cut down on bottle necks there.
A retaining wall at 100 Bank St. will also be moved back and a new one will be built in front of Walgreens to make way for the widening of the lanes, according to Nesteriak.
Fatal Hit-And-Run
Route 67 in front of Klarides Village was the scene of a deadly hit-and-run in 2021. The specific crosswalk where the crime happened falls about 500 feet outside the scope of the project, the design of which started in 2011.
In that crime, two people from Shelton leaving services at a funeral home were struck and killed while crossing Route 67 into Klarides Village – in the presence of a police officer acting as a crossing guard, who was nearly struck, too.
Jair Flores-Irigoyen, the West Haven driver allegedly responsible for the hit-and-run, is due back in court on April 10. He faces charges of second-degree manslaughter.
State elected officials called for the DOT to review safety measures on Route 67 after the incident. State Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria did not have the status of that request on Tuesday.
History
The Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments has been planning the Route 67 work with SLR, the Town of Seymour and the state Department of Transportation for many years.
A study to assess traffic along the Route 67 corridor through Seymour, Oxford and Southbury was done in 1991. NVCOG hired Milone & McBroom (now SLR) in 2011 to expand upon that study, focusing on the segment of Route 67 from Klarides Village to the intersection at Franklin and River streets.
In 2016, SLR completed an updated engineering study and recommended improvements designed to address heavy congestion and safety concerns through this segment of Route 67.
More Project Details
Based on the report, the following design improvements and upgrades will be included in the project:
*Klarides Village at Route 67: construct a new, raised island within the existing driveway to physically restrict and reinforce the left-turn prohibition for vehicles exiting the development
*Route 67 at Church Street/Beecher Street: rebuild and realign Church Street to create a T‑intersection with Beecher Street
*Replace traffic signal equipment at the Franklin Street/River Street intersection, improve traffic signal operations and efficiency, and adjust signal timings within the project limits.
The project will also include new sidewalks installed on both sides of the road, ADA compliant pedestrian ramps at all crosswalks and upgraded pedestrian crossing devices at all intersections where there are traffic lights.
Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis said the road work is needed.
“This project is going to make that whole area better,” Drugonis said. “Because of where the lanes merge now, there’s a lot of traffic that gets backed up with cars sometimes waiting twice as long at the traffic light. With the widening of the road, that problem will be removed. For commuters, it will ease congestion and for pedestrians, it will be a more walkable route.”
An employee of the Subway restaurant at 78 Bank St., which is located in the heart of the construction zone, told the Valley Indy that business hasn’t been impacted so far by the start of construction, and said any improvements to the area should only further enhance business.
A full rundown of the project can be found online at NVCOG’s website.
