Stamford Gets $16 Million Grant for Transitway

Stamford Advocate, Thursday, July 08, 2010

The $131 million Transitway, a planned 2.25-mile connection between the train station and the East Side, had been facing as much as a $25 million shortfall, according to recent city estimates. "Anyone who's tried to travel into Stamford off of Interstate 95 knows what a traffic nightmare it will be," said Peter Rogoff, the federal transit administrator. "This project will go a long way toward alleviating that congestion." Ann Brown, the project manager for the Transitway, said the city will likely need less than $9 million to finish the roadway. "We are going to look at our estimates and see what we really need," she said. The $16 million grant was the second largest awarded out of a pot of $160 million through a Federal Transit Administration program called "Bus Livability." The top winner was New York City, which received $18.4 million for its 34th Street Transitway project. Aside from tackling congestion, criteria for funding included projects that called for affordable housing and employed environmentally friendly construction practices. To date, a total of $91 million in federal money has been pledged to the Transitway, representing about 70 percent of the cost of the project. Just last month, the Board of Representatives voted to approve the acquisition of certain properties through negotiation or eminent domain for the second phase. The measure had initially been defeated due to opposition to eminent domain as well as doubts as to whether the city could obtain federal funding. Earlier this year, the DOT rejected Stamford's application for a $32 million stimulus grant request. Known as the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, the DOT is planning to hold a second round of awards totaling $600 million. Applications are due in August, according to Brown. She said the administration had been intending to apply for TIGER funding. On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Greenwich, said that with the latest DOT award, the chances of securing money through TIGER were "low." But Rogoff, who credited Himes for his advocacy on the Transitway, said that the TIGER program was an initiative that was run out of different DOT offices. The issue of prior grants, he said, would be addressed during the review process.