Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation Capital topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Transportation department seeks $2.5M plus multiple capital requests to advance Vision Zero, signal upgrades and corridor studies
Summary
City transportation staff asked the Planning Board to approve capital requests including $2.5M for roadway design and reconstruction, CMAQ‑backed signal upgrades, a Bedford/Summer Street keystone study, Vision Zero spending, transit network redesign work, and multiple bike/ped investments to leverage state and federal grants.
City transportation staff presented a suite of capital requests to the Stamford Planning Board focused on accelerating construction delivery, leveraging grant funds and implementing recent planning studies.
"This budget was really formed kind of with three main pillars," said Luke Wettenlaser, city transportation planner, describing pillars of internal capacity building, grant leverage and projects grounded in planning studies. The largest single ask in the presentation was CP1281 (roadway design and reconstruction): a $2,500,000 request split into $1,000,000 for design and $1,500,000 for construction support. Luke said those design dollars would position the city to pursue and match larger grant construction awards.
Board members pressed staff on which grants were secured. Luke confirmed $800,000 is secured as the local match for a CMAQ traffic‑signal phase and that the CMAQ Phase 8 signal upgrade account includes roughly $3,000,000 in grant funds and about $300,000 in developer contributions; he clarified the currently unfunded balance is small after recent purchase‑order commitments. "We have $3,000,000 in a grant that's in this account," Luke said when describing the signals program.
Staff also proposed additional Vision Zero implementation funds to support pedestrian safety projects (crosswalks, bump‑outs, sidewalk repairs and school‑front calming) and described a Bedford Street / Summer Street Keystone study to prepare a multimodal corridor for anticipated land‑use changes and to strengthen grant competitiveness. Luke estimated that a study with design to roughly the 30–60% level could take one to two years but noted it could be tailored to speed grant readiness.
On transit, Luke said Stamford sees substantial ridership and is seeking a city–state partnership to redesign the network and improve frequency and infrastructure such as ADA‑compliant bus shelters. "There are over 3,000,000 bus rides of CT Transit, Stamford division, every year," he said, and argued that a city contribution makes Stamford a more serious partner with the state on network redesign.
Other requests included CP8705 for bicycle and pedestrian facilities (bike lanes, racks, ADA ramps) with a $250,000 local ask and funding to retime signals and update traffic counts so timing reflects post‑2017 travel patterns. Staff said retiming work is consultant‑driven for data collection and analysis, while implementation will be done internally by the signal division.
If adopted as presented, staff said the capital requests would be used to position Stamford for larger federal and state grants and accelerate construction on corridors prioritized in the comprehensive plan and Vision Zero action items. The board requested clearer funding‑source breakdowns in updated materials before final appropriations are taken up in the budget cycle.
The presentation closed with staff offering to return with mid‑study updates and more detailed funding specifics when grant awards are known.
