In advance of today’s Connecticut Siting Council meeting to reconsider UI’s plan to install monopoles throughout Fairfield and Bridgeport, the state Department of Transportation has issued a letter saying it would be beneficial to the railroad for the transmission lines to be removed from the catenaries. In the letter to the Siting Council, DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto wrote that the agency’s position remains unchanged on the utility’s plan to remove the transmission lines from CTDOT railroad catenaries and rebuild them on steel monopoles along the Metro-North Railroad corridor from Fairfield to Bridgeport. Specifically, Eucalitto wrote: “The design UI put forth in its application aligns with CTDOT’s vision and objective on efficiently improving transportation infrastructure. “CTDOT also indicated that other alternatives, such as the underground alternative within the railroad ROW supported by many of the intervenors, would not be feasible for the Department. … [It] would add time, cost, and significant adverse impact to railroad operations, in addition to unnecessary and substantial risk to the rail infrastructure.”
Connecticut DOT says UI’s monopole plan in Fairfield, Bridgeport would be ‘beneficial’ to railroad
