As the state gets ready to perform a $7.8 million makeover of the Bishops Corner intersection in West Hartford, residents will get a chance to see how traffic engineers believe they can make it safer for pedestrians and motorists alike.
The heavily used crossroads of two major traffic arteries is also a popular retail hub, and has become notorious for accidents and near-accidents .
A key part of the new design changes the pattern for right turns at North Main Street and Route 44, doing away with the concrete traffic islands that were seen as safety features in an earlier generation. The goal is to make it easier for pedestrians to cross the wide streets where traffic often passes through at high speeds.
Traditional sidewalks will be replaced by a wider path with designated sections for pedestrians and cyclists, and make the area less intimidating to walkers, wheelchair users, cyclists and people using the CT Transit bus system.
The state transportation department is managing the project because Route 44 is a state road,
“We are really supportive of the state’s focus on safety at this difficult intersection, and we’re working close with the DOT,” Mayor Shari Cantor said Monday.
North Main is one of the town’s primary north-south routes and links traffic from Bloomfield, Simsbury and towns to the north with West Hartford’s center and I-84 to the south. Route 44, also known as Albany Avenue, is even more heavily trafficked as the chief east-wide corridor through town, linking Hartford with Avon and towns to the west.
Both roads are wide at the intersection, with either five or six lanes but no shoulders. As business built up along Route 44 and sections of North Main, there has been an increasing number of parking lot entrances and exits along the streets — feeding onto traffic lanes were motorists driving through often are doing 40 to 50 mph.
Neighbors say traffic at rush hours and holiday shopping season can be especially expasperating.
“Bishops Corner was created for automobiles – not pedestrians – and that’s the problem,” the non-profit Bike West Hartford advocacy group said last winter.
“On North Main Street there is an 800-foot distance between pedestrian crossings, and five lanes of vehicle traffic acting as a wall between the eastern and western quadrants (seven lanes at the pedestrian crossing of North Main Street and Albany Avenue because of the dangerous slip lanes),” the group said
“On the eastern side there are four vehicle exits in that same stretch,” it said. “The pedestrian sidewalks along North Main Street are narrow and sandwiched between parking lots with no sidewalks and multiple vehicle lanes.”
The DOT plans to do away with the so-called slip lanes that allow drivers to make right turns starting a short distance before the road crossing, which lets them avoid the intersection altogether. Pedestrian advocates complain that those slip lanes make crossing more confusing and hazardous.
“This project will eliminate the channelized right-turn islands to improve pedestrian safety and mobility in this busy area of West Hartford,” Project Manager Joseph Arsenault said in a statement.
The DOT will present details about its plan for fully remodeling the intersection at a public meeting Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Bishops Corner Senior Center. The agency anticipates beginning construction in mid-2027.
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