WEST HARTFORD — The reconstruction of the bustling West Hartford Center is looming. Sidewalks are narrow and hazardous, trees need to be replaced, and the existing pedestrian infrastructure is outdated and at times unsafe.
The question that remains, though, is just how far the reconstruction of LaSalle Road and Farmington Avenue — two roadways lined with restaurants and stores attracting residents and visitors to the area — will go.
The West Hartford Center Infrastructure Master Plan was first revealed a year ago, with plans to elevate the popular dining and shopping destination to a higher level by replacing and enhancing sidewalks, crosswalks, and other infrastructure.
But in November, at a meeting intended to inform local business owners about the plans, concerns were brought about losing parking spaces, as well as the disruption that construction might bring, taking the town back the drawing board — though the original plans are still very much in consideration.
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On Wednesday morning, the town showed off potential design options, ranging from keeping the status quo but still replacing sidewalks and trees while enhancing pedestrians safety, to fuller transformations that include a shift in parking from angled to parallel that would leave more space for wider sidewalks, permanent expanded outdoor dining, and even buffered sidewalk-level bike lanes.
LaSalle Road
Duane Martin, the town's director of community development, confirmed Wednesday that no construction will be taking place in 2024. But next year, it's likely that work will start on LaSalle Road. What that works entails rests on a decision yet to be made by the town manager's office.
Currently, LaSalle Road has two-way traffic and features angled parking on both sides of the street. Its sidewalks are narrow, with only 4 to 6 percent of the streetscape being devoted to pedestrians compared to 70 percent of the streetscape being devoted to parking and travel lanes.
That could be altered substantially by turning the road's angled parking into parallel parking, which would increase pedestrian sidewalk space to 10 percent and reduce vehicle space dramatically to 36 percent of the streetscape. More room would also be made for dedicated outdoor dining, which since the pandemic has been done in parking spaces.
But to do that, the town would need to remove 37 on-street parking spaces, something that concerned business owners whose restaurants and storefronts line the street. Since 2020, the town has been temporarily removing dozens of parking spaces each spring, summer, and fall to accommodate expanded outdoor dining. There also isn't a lack of parking in West Hartford Center, the town's consultant Stantec said, with over 2,500 parking spaces available in the area between surface lots, street parking, and parking garages. Another 2,700 parking spaces are also available in Blue Back Square.
New designs posed on Wednesday showed one option, called a baseline reconstruction, keeping the sidewalk widths as is, but repairing and enhancing other features. Another design, called a hybrid option, would combined keeping angled parking while still expanding sidewalks.
"In this scenario, we slightly widen the sidewalks by reducing the overall curb to curb dimension from 70 feet to 60 feet, so that gives us five feet extra on either side," said Travis Ewen of Stantec, about the hybrid proposal. "That allows for a little bit wider outdoor dining, some more landscaped areas and from the original parking of 107 spaces we go to 88 spaces, and that again accommodates for loading zones and the bumpouts to make safe crosswalks."
Farmington Avenue
A similar decision about whether to give more space to vehicles or to pedestrians and cyclists will also need to be made on Farmington Avenue.
Currently, 57 percent of Farmington Avenue is devoted to vehicle traffic and parking. Another 4 to 8 percent, depending on which side of the road you are on, is dedicated to pedestrians. Initial designs would shift that by making all parking parallel, leaving only 37 percent of the streetscape for vehicles. That would widen sidewalks to 9 percent of the streetscape on each side of the street, but also introduce buffered sidewalk-level bike lanes taking up 14 percent of the street.
"It's something we consider for all of our roadway projects," Martin said about bike facilities. "We are responsible for designing the roads, as best we can, for all users. There are challenges, especially in the Center, where we have a lot of conflicting needs for space with parking, outdoor dining, and bicycle facilities. We don't want to ignore safety for all users."
Like with LaSalle Road, the town has also included a baseline reconstruction that would only widen sidewalks slightly and do away with proposed bike lanes. A proposed hybrid design option would include a shared pathway for low-speed cyclists and pedestrians. A fourth proposal would feature parallel parking with "conventional" bike lanes painted onto the roadway not buffered or protected by anything.
No matter what designs are chosen, attention will be paid to pedestrian safety. The town is planning to shorten lengthy crosswalks with curb changes and new bumpouts, meaning pedestrians crossing both LaSalle Road and Farmington Avenue will walk shorter distances. There are also plans to raise sidewalks, which could be a useful tool for slowing traffic and increasing pedestrian visibility.
"A lot of the materials for the crosswalks are at the end of their useful life," Ewen said. "There's been utility work that's gone on, snowplowing is a constant issue with that, so there's some upgrades that should happen in order to create better surfaces. As part of this project, we analyzed and highlighted traffic and pedestrian safety concerns. That really started to correlate with the street widths and the crossing distances. Once we started to see crossing distances over 50 feet, that's when we saw a spike in the crash locations."
Construction and cost
A lingering concern for business owners who attended the meeting hovered around how exactly construction, and any disruption that comes with it, would be handled.
Martin said the project will utilize night work when possible, which should alleviate some of the disruption businesses might face.
The plan will also be done in phases, meaning that when work begins on LaSalle Road next year that the entire street and sidewalk won't be disturbed all at once. Instead, work will be done in bits and pieces, continuing down the roadway until complete. But with no plans in place or designs chosen yet, the exact construction process hasn't been finalized.
Cost was also a concern from some who attended the meeting. At the low end, consultants estimated the project could cost $8 million if the town elects to opt for baseline reconstructions that don't alter the streetscape design too much. The more alterations needed, the more the project cost would increase. But Martin said none of it will be footed by taxpayers, with the town prepared to propose using its American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project, which would need to be approved by the Town Council.
The full presentation can be viewed on YouTube and includes interactive polls that will remain open for a few more weeks. Design option will also be posted to the town's website. No decisions have been made yet and Martin said another public meeting would be held within the next two months before decisions are made by the town manager.
Feb 8, 2024
By Michael Walsh
Michael Walsh is the editor of the West Hartford News. Previously, he worked for The Hartford Courant for nearly 10 years, covering West Hartford and the Farmington Valley, among other towns. He also loves horror movies, the band Phish and fast food restaurants. Michael can be reached at [email protected].
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