Both are making a comeback.
Like the award-winning star of “The Wrestler” and upcoming “Iron Man II,” the long-dormant Super 7 project is suddenly making headlines and garnering all sorts of attention.
Planned several decades ago, Super 7 was supposed to provide a rapid connection between Norwalk and Danbury for commuters. But opposition from small towns and environmentalists pretty much killed the proposal, and now it is barely on the state Department of Transportation’s radar. The department is instead widening the existing old Route 7.
Early last month The Advocate ran a story about how the DOT, responding to a request from the Governor’s office for lists of saleable assets, suggested marketing the nearly two dozen homes acquired by the state over the years to build the expressway.
Not long afterward, in what I thought was an amazing coincidence, Super 7 supporter Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, finally released the results of a $10,000, taxpayer-funded UCONN Stamford survey of residents’ support for the project.
Subsequently elected officials from several towns got together and called for “a fuller study” of the unfinished expressway.
And today Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, a longtime Super 7 foe, announced a press conference will be held at 9 a.m. TUESDAY at Wilton Town Hall “to set the record straight on Route 7 corridor.”
“The transportation plan for the Route 7 corridor is based on solid, quantifiable realities,” Boucher stated in the press release. “Recent speculation about altering this plan to include construction of a super highway does not take those realities into account and is therefore misleading the public.”
She ended with “I’m looking at YOU, Bob Duff.” Kidding. Kidding.
But hey, congratulations to Super 7 for the renewed attention.
At this rate I’m thinking the story of the unfinished project is going to be the next topic Ken Burns tackles after his miniseries on national parks.
