Mr. Stephen Dudley
Transportation Director
SCRCOG
sdudley@scrcog.org

Dear Mr. Dudley,

We the undersigned are loosely affiliated as The Friends of Historic Route 146. We are residents, neighbors, visitors, motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and more who use and love this unique and very special place. We write to express our concerns about the scope and direction of the Route 146 study that you discussed in a public meeting on December 1. We request significant changes to the existing scope of services and a more transparent public process of review and consideration for the future of the road.

Any study or plan for Route 146 should address the specific historical, environmental, and recreational attributes of this exceptional roadway—a State designated Scenic Road and bike route, which passes through three National Register Historic Districts. The plan’s deficiencies are abundant. It hardly mentions the need for traffic calming, nor any of the other solutions under consideration for similar roads across the state. It fails to mention the proposed bridge at the Crabbing Place and the design of this facility. It doesn’t consider truck traffic or high-speed traffic or their possible diversion onto Route 1. Nor does the plan prohibit any widening of the roadbed. Nor does the scope of services include any reference to the railroad bridges. Route 146 is lined with houses built in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, including one of the oldest barns in Connecticut, most within five or ten feet of the pavement. A widening of the road is out of the question.

This off-the-shelf study does not address the specific problems of this specific road.

We also request a process of active civic engagement in planning and design. The current schedule is entirely inadequate. The 10-day notice of the December 1 meeting, followed by the deadline of December 31 for comments – with no further opportunity for comment, is so insensitive to current Covid realities and the time of year, as to make one wonder if it was designed to minimize input from the public.

We look forward to a meeting to discuss ways the current scope of services should be remedied to address these concerns.

Sincerely the Undersigned Friends of Historic Route 146,

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