Lawmakers compromise over airport

HARTFORD -- Feuding between Bridgeport and Stratford lawmakers over the controversial expansion of Sikorsky Memorial Airport yielded to a compromise Tuesday and a one-year moratorium on the project.

The deal avoided a potentially contentious battle of amendments on the annual statewide transportation bill, which then passed Tuesday night with little debate.

It heads to the Senate for expected final action by midnight tonight.

In the end, a single amendment, offered by Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford, and approved in a voice vote, codified the moratorium.

It also requires that public hearings on the expansion, including the realignment of state Route 113, Main Street in Stratford, be held in Stratford, where the airport is located, and Bridgeport, which has owned the facility for 70 years.

If no deal can be reached by April 15 of next year, the state Department of Transportation can begin the realignment.

The Federal Aviation Administration would oversee the reconstruction of the main runway and the construction of a 300-foot safety zone for planes that overshoot the landing strip, such as the twin engine charter craft that crashed there killing eight people in 1994.

"It has been a point of contention between the two towns for many, many years," Backer said as he introduced the amendment on the floor of the House. "I think Stratford has always had the better points."

Last week, the Connecticut Post reported that the DOT was planning the realignment, estimated to cost around $4 million, and the $15 million safety zone and airstrip reconstruction, after the years of impasse. Rep. John Harkins, R-Stratford, said the agreement Tuesday was a classic compromise, with neither side winning what it wanted.

"But it at least moves forward dialogue and we're going to have a public hearing discussing the future of Route 113," Harkins said. Reps. Christopher L. Caruso and Robert T. Keeley Jr., both D-Bridgeport, said the delay was fair.

"The time that it would take DOT to begin the project, you're probably looking at anywhere between three and five years," Caruso said in an interview on the House floor shortly before the bill was called.

"Stratford didn't realize that there was going to have to be a public hearing anyway on the environmental impact," Keeley said.

"There were major bureaucracies involved between the DOT, the FAA and the U.S. Army," which owns property to the east of Main Street that would be needed for the realignment of the street and the safety-zone construction.

Keeley said the flurry of amendments was used to prompt some kind of resolution to the issue during the waning days of the Legislature. "I was trying to bring this to a head," Keeley said from his seat in the House.

He said as many as 15 amendments had been planned. One filed on the transportation bill -- co-sponsored by the entire Bridgeport House delegation -- would have lengthened the 4,800-foot runway by 1,200 feet, created a duty-free area there and established an interstate truck weigh station along Interstate 95 in Stratford.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.