DOT holds public workshop to discuss removal of Route 9 traffic lights in Middletown

Middletown’s traffic lights have been stopping Route 9 travelers since they were installed in the early 1950s.

“The lights in Middletown are the only ones that you hit in that entire journey, so there’s something a little problematic about that,” Krishna Winston, of Middletown, said.

From early 2021 through 2023, the CT Department of Transportation recorded over 500 crashes around Middletown’s stoplight portion of Route 9.

“Everybody in Middletown knows somebody who has been rear-ended getting onto the highway or getting off of the highway,” Winston said.

Since 2016, the DOT has been developing its latest plans to change that.

“Our goal is to remove the signals, get rid of the crashes without harming Main Street. We can’t have Main Street bear the burden of Route 9 traffic,” State Highway Design Unit Project Manager Steve Hall said.

On Wednesday, the public had the chance to review various renderings, ask questions and give feedback on DOT’s latest proposals.

“I’m also concerned about safety, but I’d hate to see those safety problems move from the highway to our neighborhoods and hurt the downtown businesses and vitality of our main street,” Jennifer Alexander, of Middletown, said.

The DOT has numerous plans, but as of Wednesday, one preferred alternative to the existing traffic pattern.

In the city’s South End, Route 9 North traffic would take a new off-ramp south of the Route 17 interchange, and just north of Walnut Street. Vehicles would then use a new roundabout that would lead underneath a newly elevated Route 9 south lane.

Traffic traveling north looking to get over the Arrigoni Bridge would then either drive along Main Street or DeKoven Drive, both ending by the existing intersection that leads to the bridge’s on-ramp.

Route 9 South will also be elevated at Middletown’s North End in order to change the existing stop light intersection into a free flowing ramp. That would allow travelers coming from Middletown to pick up Route 9 North, or South without stopping.

“It’s the preferred alternative now, but we can’t say–this is not by any means what we’re certainly going with–this is the preferred alternative we’re hoping to educate and get feedback on,” Hall said.

If this latest plan were to be approved, Hall said the $115 million project could start in 2027 and would take about four years to complete.

He said 80% of the project would be federally funded, while the remaining 20% would use state dollars.