Another Nature Preserve in the Crosshairs

n about a year and a half, 18-wheelers could be off-ramping from I-95 right through the Long Wharf Nature Preserve onto Long Wharf Drive, passing by the base of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The cost of eating up a third of an acre of nature preserve: $1, out of a $30 million plan.

It’s the latest phase of the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s (DOT) $350 million Interstate 95 makeover at the Q Bridge, due to finish up in 2016. The DOT last month informed the New Haven Land Trust of plans to move the Long Wharf northbound exit ramp to the entrance to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Long Wharf Drive and the on-ramp to a point about 200 feet north of the memorial.

Chris Randall, who runs the New Haven Land Trust, isn’t happy with the plan, and is looking into stopping it with legal action. Both Randall and City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg said the proposal is not pedestrian-friendly, and will encroach on a quiet slice of nature.

The DOT’s plan is intended as a solution to the universally acknowledged problem of traffic jockeying and weaving around the current Long Wharf exits and entrances on the northbound side, as drivers choose between the highways and municipal roads that come together there in a small area. The situation is now further complicated by the traffic angling to make for the recently opened Route 34 “flyover.”

“By relocating these ramps we increase the decision making time frame [for drivers],” said DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick. Plans call for a traffic signal at the base of the ramp, and off-rampers would slowly merge with drivers who have taken the 90-degree turn off Sargent Drive beneath the underpass and onto Long Wharf Drive, he said.

“This design is superior in terms of safety,” Nursick added. He was referring not only to the ramps but to amenities such as a bump-out for buses in front of the veterans memorial that he said would make accessing the memorial and preserve more secure for school children and other visitors.

Local officials are not so sure.

In fact, the state’s solution has New Haven Land Trust’s Randall and City Plan Department chief Gilvarg upset over what they see as a potentially serious negative impact on a relatively quiet and culturally important harbor-side corner.

They’re wondering if there aren’t other alternatives. Meanwhile, they said, DOT is just plowing ahead.

Because of a clause in a 1994 land deal, the DOT will pay $1 to take back a third of an acre of the trust’s land to accommodate the tapering 60-foot off-ramp.

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