A Sidewalk Comes To Crescent Street

Fresh concrete dried quickly on Crescent Street under Thursday’s hot sun.

The long-awaited sidewalk-in-progress across from Beaver Pond Park is the product of years of neighborhood advocacy, political bureaucracy, geometric problem-solving, and now physical labor.

It will span two blocks, or 550 feet, between Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and Colony Road.

At noon on Thursday, four pavers scraped and swept the fast-hardening concrete to leave a lightly ridged surface. They balanced on planks and a soon-to-be-solidified curb, leaning over with precision to avoid leaving any footprints.

One of the men hard at work was Percy Dagraca, the West Haven-based owner of the construction company Dagraca Masonry. He apologetically declined an interview, noting that concrete dries extra quickly in the heat. ​“I have to focus,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dagraca employee Tamara Jones braved the 85-degree heat in a hard hat and a neon vest, ushering cars past the construction zone where a long-awaited sidewalk was starting to materialize.

She thought about two of her daughters, who go to school on opposite ends of Crescent Street.

One attends Hillhouse High School. Another studies at Southern Connecticut State University. And Jones, who herself lives only blocks away from the sidewalk-to-be, was helping to more safely connect them.

Historically, pedestrians on the south side of Crescent Street have either trudged through neighbors’ front yards, walked in the road among cars, or sprinted across the street despite a lack of nearby crosswalks.

Jones said that neighbors have approached her with enthusiasm for the sidewalk, especially parents of young kids.

While watching for traffic, Jones steals glances at the handiwork of her coworkers at Dagraca Masonry. ​“They’re hard working. They’re really good people,” she said. ​“They’re doing such a beautiful job.”

While the heat has been tough, she said, ​“I’m kinda used to the weather.” She’s careful to drink extra water throughout the 7.5‑hour workday.

What It Takes To Make A Sidewalk

According to City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, sidewalks are typically one of the simpler infrastructure projects to implement.

In order to install a new sidewalk where there was none, the city needs approval from the Board of Alders. In the case of the Crescent Street sidewalk, alders unanimously signed off on the proposal back in November 2022, with active support from both former Beaver Hills Alder Shafiq Abdussabur and his successor, Alder Tom Ficklin.

After clearing that hurdle, the city had to actually design the sidewalk — a task that proved more complicated than expected.

In order to avoid narrowing the road (which would have affected drainage, according to Zinn), the sidewalk would have to replace the outer strip of lawn along those two Crescent Street blocks.

The property lines of each Crescent Street lot technically stretch out to the middle of the road — but the public is entitled to walk and drive through an outer segment of those properties. Within that segment of the property, known as the public ​“right of way,” the city has the power to make road improvements — such as adding a new sidewalk.

The city enlisted a surveyor to map out where the right of way on Crescent Street began and ended — which would translate to how far into the lawns a sidewalk could extend.

According to Zinn, that process took longer than expected due to conflicting documentation. ​“We had a bunch of back-and-forths with the surveyor” before coming to a conclusion.

The city also had to figure out how to build the sidewalk so that it would be sufficiently flat.

The lawns along that side of Crescent slope downwards at a steep angle. ​“The geometry’s actually fairly complicated. You’ve got inclines in multiple directions,” said Zinn. To ensure that the sidewalk would meet slope regulations, the city decided to dig a more level base, adding a curb between the sloping grass and the walkway.

By Thursday, Southern Connecticut State University physics professor Christine Broadbridge witnessed the digging and pouring in action as she ambled by the road work on the other side of the street, taking her daily walk through the neighborhood.

“I was very excited” to see the sidewalk-in-progress, she said. ​“I have a rule that I have to take a walk every day,” she said, which often takes her through Beaver Hills. ​“This is really helpful.”

Pedestrian Advocate: Don't Stop There

“It’s been a very long process for two blocks of sidewalk,” said Rebecca Cramer, a nearby resident who has been advocating for the sidewalk since 2021.

Throughout her decade living in Beaver Hills, Cramer said, ​“You either had to cross without a crosswalk or walk through people’s yards. It was always pretty dangerous, but in particular when my kids were really young, I would be walking with a toddler, a baby, and a dog.”

After the city repaved Crescent Street, Cramer reached out to city staff about pedestrian safety improvements in the summer of 2021. She and fellow sidewalk advocate Nan Bartow worked with then-Alder Shafiq Abdussabur and his successor, Tom Ficklin, to get aldermanic approval for a sidewalk; in doing so, they gathered nearly 300 signatures from neighbors in support.

“Here we are in 2024,” Cramer said. ​“I would love it if they were able to think through how to make [the process of getting a sidewalk] a little bit easier. But at the same time, I think it will help make our neighborhood feel more connected, and definitely safer.”

Cramer isn’t finished pushing for more pedestrian infrastructure in the neighborhood. Her next focus? Advocating for a crosswalk by the entrance of Bowen Field down the street.