Norwich bulletin., 1922-12-14
BENNETT HAS PLANS FOR

State HiShWRy ComEnisSionE- Charles II J. Bennett has just announced that he iI had decided 10 offer plans to the session l| or the legislature which convenes Jan. $ i Tor construction of a special highway for the cxcqIsjve USE os motor truriis The highway department will hold in rcadi- ness considerable data which # has ac- cunulatsd on the subject so as to make i It Immediately available to the legi,sla- ! tive committed on roads, bridge. and , riTers in tho event a bill for such a high :. Way is introduced from some other s2u=c" ! or cTig.1atod ir the committee.
 DeEer C. Warner of Bridgeport. a director ot tho Warner Brothers t'n. ! said that in all probability manufacturers O. Fairfield county would take up tho project and urge its adoption by Inc leg islaturc.
 Engineers of the highway drps-irncnt have made q complete survey or the terr.- tory between Bridgeport and the New Hork state line where it has been pre-. posed 10 build the special highway parallel tO the Boston post road \ srr- Tey of the department has shown ina. | over 1o,OUu automobiles q day pass over
 the post road between these tWo-D0.n;s ] of which pNors than Q GyO are mois,. { trucks, making the stretch the busiest uI 1 its kind in the country. Recognizing the 1 fsct that so many trucks on the main
 road seriously impede traffic and are ere
 atlng problem which grows steadily
 more serious, the highway Gcparinrnj : has studied the advisability Of construct , ing for the exclusive use of motor irucks
 8 special highway running substantially
 parallel to the post road. The p-oHosrs I route of this special highway skirts inc
 business center of Bridegroom. going
 widely 10 the north. but within inc riiy
 Iimits, continues to the north or the post
 road as far as to Fairfield where if crosses the nost road. and continues 70 the south of it until it recrosses at S:au-
 ford, and continues from that city ia Byram river, Greenwich. to the north @, the post road, conversin- thers with ihc post road to connection with the main !, road into New York
 . The proposed route is about 90 miles , long. and highway 22 feet wide would ! require an appropriation approaching a Sl,6oo,ooo. The highway department ha, worked out various plans bearing of the construction Of such a truck high
 way. Theso plans it does not nocessarii, recommend. but 1t will lay them befors t; the Legislature for consideration. if -c, b queSted. One of tho plans Is to put th, expense of the highway on the aetna
 users, by assessing a tax of two cents !. ton mile on each freIght-carrying trucl - which passes over 1t. The highway de
 partmeHt found, that 14.0o0, 900 ton mile of pay freight annually passes over thl Boston post road from Bridgeport to tn s New York state line It is estimated tha 5 about SsSo,eeo a year could be raise,
 in this way.
 Freight whose transportation cost t - the consumer is estimated at ss.sio.oO
 year at prevailing railroad rates ' Q using that section of the Boston DOS road today, it has been found by th T highway department. The value Of pas
 senger service rsadered by about a mil Hon passenger automobiles which snnu
 ally use the rosd. figured at s.s cents
 mIle, is estimated at shout S10.ooO oOt G Aedon on the proposed truck highwa |. will be watched tn all sections of th = country, as 1t would be the first moto a rad to be built exclusively for uoto = trucks