Two years ago, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson stunned many in Connecticut with an idea to build a system of highway tunnels under Hartford and East Hartford longer than Boston’s “Big Dig.”
Reactions to his plan ran from “brilliant and necessary” to “the mother of all pipe dreams,” but Larson plowed ahead and asked state Department of Transportation officials to study the tunnel idea. They did. In an analysis released in September, DOT traffic engineers said, in effect, that they don’t think it will work. Undeterred, Larson convened two forums on tunnels in the past two months, one featuring business and civic leaders from Seattle, which is replacing an aging highway viaduct with a tunnel, and another with a national tunneling expert. So, does Connecticut cue Big Bertha and start drilling, or not? Continue Reading →
