Long Island Sound bridge proposal gets a hearing in Connecticut

HARTFORD — The bridge between Long Island and Connecticut has been a monumental, some might say fanciful, vision that has eluded multiple generations of enthusiastic planners, most of them New Yorkers. But now, Connecticut might give it a look.

State lawmakers in Hartford held a hearing Tuesday about a bill to study a bridge to Long Island.

"This bridge checks multiple boxes — recreation, commerce, and it's a major infrastructure project that can generate thousands of jobs and impact," said Rep. Joe Hoxha, a second-term representative with the Republican minority, in testimony before the legislature’s commerce committee.

Hoxha and other supporters at the hearing said a bridge built with federal, Connecticut and New York dollars could have benefits ranging from tourism to revitalization of Connecticut’s urban areas and emergency evacuation access for Long Islanders.

But some lawmakers questioned the viability.

"I am concerned about the environmental impacts. I'm also concerned on the cost," said Sen. Heather Somers, Republican leader from thesoutheastern part of the state. "I am not honestly interested in doing another super expensive study that then is going to go be put on a shelf."

There was some confusion over the length of the proposed bridge. Hoxha said 25 miles in his testimony, but Stephen Shapiro, an Easton-based real estate developer who testified in Hoxha’s support, put the distance at 14 miles from Bridgeport to the Sunken Meadow Parkway in Kings Park. According to Google Maps, the shortest distance from Bridgeport to Kings Park is about 16 miles.

Hoxha said Shapiro, a friend, first floated the current proposal. Shapiro told Newsday he came up with the campaign on a whim.

There was no vote on the proposal Tuesday.

"Our local paper wanted to do an interview with me just about housing stuff, and I just threw this in there, in the story, and it ballooned into this huge thing," said Shapiro, who soon found himself doing television interviews.

In one, he estimated the outlay at $50 billion based on per-mile extrapolations from building the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, opened in 2018 — a debt he said could be easily paid off by $40 tolls.

"Some people say it’s too expensive," said Shapiro Tuesday. "Two-hundred years ago, when Gov. [DeWitt] Clinton in New York proposed the Erie Canal, people laughed."

Proposals for a cross-Sound bridge go back to at least 1938, with proponents including Robert Moses and Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Most recently, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo commissioned a study for a bridge or tunnel crossing in 2017. That study, which cost $5 million, recommended a bridge or tunnel-bridge combination from Kings Park to the Bridgeport area "for further study." It estimated the cost at up to $31 billion in 2016 dollars.

All past bridge proposals were eventually abandoned over concerns about cost, social and environmental impacts.

Hoxha and Shapiro said their idea is bipartisan, though they said they have not yet reached out to the city administration in Bridgeport or officials in New York.

The office of the mayor of Bridgeport did not respond to a request for comment from Newsday about the proposal, and Gov. Kathy Hochul's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But former Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, a Democrat who also is a former director of the New York Thruway Authority, spoke in favor of the proposal.

Finch acknowledged "many unknowns," but said that shouldn’t stop a study. "I don't know if a lot of people understand this, but when they started to build the [Gov. Mario M. Cuomo] bridge, they didn't know how much it was going to cost." (The former Tappan Zee Bridge, over the more modest Hudson River, is just over 3 miles.)

Cuomo promoted a Rye-to-Oyster Bay bridge, but it was opposed by the town and a coalition of North Shore mayors.

Local residents and environmental groups have voiced concerns about impacts on wetlands, the Sound, waterfront views and local traffic. Environmental concerns stem from the construction process, as well as long-term runoff from a bridge into the Sound.

According to the 2017 study, which looked at bridges and tunnels for vehicles, a new crossing could actually divert New York City traffic onto Long Island.

Shapiro and Hoxha argued that his proposal — which includes a train on the bridge — could reduce traffic on the overcrowded I-95 and Merritt Parkway in Connecticut.