With 11 locations on the Connecticut Department of Transportation’s (CTDOT) Suggested List of Surveillance Study Sites (SLOSS) list, the Albany Avenue (Route 44) corridor was one of the most concentrated accident location areas in the state. VHB was tasked by the City of Hartford with providing roadway, traffic, pavement, sidewalk, stormwater, landscaping, and lighting improvements along the corridor. The primary goal of this $30 million dollar construction project was to improve safety and operational conditions throughout the corridor, particularly for pedestrians. Notable roadway improvements included modifications to the direction of traffic flow on multiple one-way streets, geometric improvements including intersection realignments and roadway widening, and a modification of the Albany Avenue cross-section to accommodate left-turn storage lanes at intersections and driveways.
To improve pedestrian safety and provide a sense of place within the corridor, VHB introduced over 400 trees, 300 ornamental light poles, curbed bump outs at key intersections, brick pavers bandings and intersection accents, raised granite planter beds, new reinforced concrete bus pads, and new transit shelters. VHB also replaced traffic control signal equipment at seven existing signalized intersections, installed four new traffic control signals, and removed an existing traffic control signal. The traffic control signal improvements also involved upgrades to the CTDOT closed loop system inside and outside of the primary project limits including traffic controller and cabinet upgrades at seven additional intersections.
