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Conn. Infrastructure To Get $1.8 Billion Facelift Through 2018

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork) - Connecticut's bridges, highways and rail systems will undergo a 5-year, $1.8 billion upgrade, Gov. Dannel Malloy announced.

As WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported, the improvements include finishing up replacement of the overhead wires on the Metro-North New Haven line in the Bridgeport area.

Conn. Infrastructure To Get $1.8 Billion Facelift Through 2018

"We will be doing it without taking two tracks out. So it'll be a single track at a time so there'd be less impact on customers," said Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Jim Redeker.

The plan will also continue the highway widening project on Interstate 95 in Norwalk to help bring relief to that congested area.

"It should get rid of some of the massive capacity backups that we see almost every day in that area," Redeker told Schneidau.

Redeker said other big projects will be launched statewide, including widening Interstate 84 in Waterbury and replacing the I-84 viaduct in Hartford. The funding will also go toward replacing the Q-Bridge in New Haven along I-95 and rehabilitating the Putnam Bridge along Route 3 in Glastonbury.

"We have invested millions in our roads, bridges and railways over the last three years and have an ambitious five-year plan in place to continue upgrading and strengthening our transportation infrastructure well into the future," said Malloy in a statement. "These projects will facilitate commerce, stimulate economic development, improve the daily commutes of countless residents and create thousands of immediate construction jobs."

Redeker said Connecticut was able to corral several million dollars from other states which did not cash in on all their federal highway funding.

ConnDOT's 2014-2018 Transportation Capital Infrastructure Program was announced Tuesday along I-84 in Waterbury.

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