Devon Panel to Delay

10/17/2006

Devon panel to delay decision on power lines

Chris Rhatigan , Register Staff

-MILFORD — The Devon Revitalization Committee will delay a decision on whether power lines on Bridgeport Avenue will be buried or moved to nearby side streets.

It will be at least six months until the committee receives bids from each of the six utility companies involved, said state House Speaker James A. Amann, D-Milford. The expense of the two options will be weighed, as well as the aesthetics.

Amann favors burying the power lines along the Route 1 corridor, citing state money spent on revitalizing Devon.

"If we’re doing this whole project, why not do it right?," he said. "We’ve been talking about this for a year now."

Amann said the power lines out on the street look ugly on parts of Bridgeport Avenue.

The state has approved $2.5 million for the next phase of the revitalization project, and Amann said $5 million could be in the pipeline next year.

Already the state has spent millions of dollars on streetscape upgrades on Naugatuck and Bridgeport Avenues, along with creating a small park with a clocktower by the Washington Bridge, which carries Route 1 over the Housatonic River between Milford and Stratford.

While Amann believes burying the power lines is better, United Illuminating created a plan to move the power lines off Bridgeport Avenue, but keep them above ground. The company says burying the power lines would be pricey and difficult to maintain.

UI has estimated burying the power lines would cost $1.5 million, but extra costs would be incurred because of effects to other utilities such as Cablevision, SBC and the Regional Water Authority. Those extra costs had been estimated to bring the total cost of the project to $5 million, but Amann has said that estimate is "too high."

Chris Rhatigan can be reached at 876-6800 or crhatigan@nhregister.com .

As published by New Haven Register at: http://www.nhregister.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=17336627&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=8