Dear Friends,

It’s a great time to live in Southwest Connecticut. I’m so proud of the progress we’ve made to update our community’s infrastructure over the past couple of years, largely thanks to funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). This landmark legislation marks the biggest investment in cleaner, greener, more efficient national infrastructure in decades, and I’m grateful to have played a role in passing it last Congress.

The BIL provided $550 billion in new spending over five years for our nation’s core infrastructure priorities, from road and bridge construction to passenger and freight rail investments to broadband deployment and energy grid resiliency. Crucially, funding from the BIL will go toward safety improvements so that pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists can share the roads from Greenwich to Bridgeport.

Biking with Representative Hayes (CT-05) and others to celebrate BIL funding for Connecticut.

Check out some of the biggest infrastructure wins for Connecticut’s fourth congressional district.

Bridgeport

Our state’s largest city received nearly $100 million in total to improve climate resilience and enhance conditions in Bridgeport Harbor. Nearly half of the federal funds for Bridgeport came from a Federal Emergency Management-Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (FEMA-BRIC) grant allocated for the Resilient Bridgeport Coastal Flood Defense System. This project helps prevent storm surges by implementing a protective barrier and a pump station, along with bioswales and rain gardens, for up to 2.5 feet of sea level rise over the next 50 years.

Another nearly $40 million is helping the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers address shoaling in Bridgeport Harbor, which will improve navigation and safety for deep draft vessels. Finally, over $10 million will go towards the design and construction of an Operations and Maintenance Wind Port to assist offshore wind vessels.

Westport

Funds from the landmark infrastructure legislation—the single largest bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s—helped complete the bridge replacement project on I-95 in Westport. We all know how frustrating it can be to sit in traffic on the interstate, and thanks to BIL funds we can spend less time idling in cars and more time at home with our families.

Completing the bridge replacement project on I-95 in Westport.

Stamford

The BIL allocated more than a quarter million dollars to help transition our community to a cleaner energy grid by purchasing a fleet of electric buses to serve local routes in the Stamford-Bridgeport area. Stamford also received nearly $5 million to curb the effects of the climate crisis while bolstering environmental justice and green infrastructure. A nearly $3 million FEMA-BRIC grant aims to improve coastal resilience in neighborhoods along the water, which are home to over 15,000 people, by building emergency power generators for pump stations and updating aging pumps and electrical equipment.

Stamford also received a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant of over $2 million to design and engineer a ‘Complete Street’ to enhance pedestrian safety and create greater biking and walking opportunities, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting equity in our community. Spanning over a mile of the West Main Street corridor in the heart of the city, the ‘Complete Street’ project includes separated bike lanes, sidewalks, and bus boarding islands, along with more visible, shorter crosswalks at nine intersections along the roadway.

Norwalk

In Norwalk, BIL funds are helping to clean up and connect our community. Nearly $5 million in funding from a RAISE grant was awarded to Norwalk to plan and engineer several sections of the Norwalk River Valley Trail. This 55-mile multi-use trail connects Norwalk to Wilton, Redding, Ridgefield, Danbury, Brookfield, and New Milford, and provides a safe way for parents to commute to work, kids to get to school, and community members to bike, walk, and run recreationally.

A $2 million Brownfields Cleanup Grant will help decontaminate the Webster Street Lot in Norwalk, making the community safer for families, businesses, and our planet. This five-acre site has been used historically to manufacture hats, shirts, and metals, leaving behind petroleum and other volatile organic compounds that endanger human and environmental health.

Launching the completion of the Norwalk River Valley Trail with Senator Blumenthal.

Breaking ground on Norwalk’s Walk Bridge, which is being replaced thanks to federal BIL funds.

The BIL established a first-of-its-kind Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program to reduce crashes and fatalities, especially for cyclists and pedestrians, across the country. In Southwest Connecticut, a $4 million SS4A grant will go toward dozens of improvement projects for busy thoroughfares from Greenwich to Darien and Ridgefield to Wilton, including installing high-visibility crosswalks, updating traffic signals with retroreflective backplates, and restriping roadways.

You deserve nothing less than state-of-the-art infrastructure that offers Connecticut families safe, healthy spaces to live, work, and play. That’s why I will keep fighting for robust funding to improve our roadways, waterways, and public spaces and promote safety and sustainability in our community.

As always, my office is standing by to take your calls and help you with federal agencies. Please don’t hesitate to call my Bridgeport office at (203) 333-6600 if there is anything my team can do to assist you, and be sure to sign up for my newsletter to get updates from me about how my work in Washington helps you at home in Connecticut.

Sincerely,

Jim