Traffic signals on congested, accident-prone highway will be gone in a CT city. What you need to know.

It’s a very unusual Connecticut situation for drivers.

When Route 9, a high-speed freeway, hits the center of Middletown, drivers can suddenly run into two red lights.

“We don’t have any others on any freeways in the state,” said Stephen Hall, the state Department of Transportation ’s project manager for the project that will remove the signals . “It’s a very surprising situation if you’re not familiar with it either. A lot of crashes, a lot of injuries, and then a lot of congestion as well.”

Backups go as far north as Cromwell on weekdays, Hall said.

The safety issues with the signals at Washington Street and Hartford Avenue are so bad that there’s a crash on average every other day and an injury every week, Hall said.

There’s another safety issue too.

“The signals also make it far too easy to get on the wrong lane on the freeway,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’ve had fatalities that are caused from cars getting on the wrong way, and these signals create situations that can be difficult at 2 in the morning, especially for an impaired driver.”

The solution of removing them will make other improvements to the roads outside of downtown Middletown, including a roundabout at River Road south of downtown and a raised section of highway to allow for a northbound entrance at Hartford Avenue.

Two signals 0.36 miles apart

The signals are 0.36 miles apart and “don’t just congest Route 9, but actually cause a lot of the congestion on Main Street, because cars are kind of trapped with these signals, and they can’t get into or out of Middletown efficiently,” Hall said.

While the project to remove them won’t begin until 2027 and take four years, there will be a public informational meeting April 30 at Wesleyan University’s Beckham Hall (Fayerweather) at 45 Wyllys Ave.

“However, one of the benefits … is a lot of that work can happen off the highway,” Hall said. “So that entire new exit, that entire roundabout, can be fully constructed without impacting the traveling public, so it does help out with our construction operations quite a bit.”

That roundabout is going to be what drivers come to when they leave Route 9 at a new exit at Walnut Street, bringing them to River Road and into the city without having to take the highway into downtown at all, Hall said.

Harbor Drive access closed

The access to Route 9 at Harbor Drive will be closed, he said.

“And this ties in very well with the city’s riverfront redevelopment,” he said. “I know they’re putting in NoRa Cupcakes and Eli Cannon’s Tap Room down there, so it’ll change the nature of Harbor Drive from an on ramp to a nice low-speed and urban street to provide access to the riverfront.”

The traffic flow into downtown would be changed:

“Union Street to DeKoven Drive would be the decision points,” Hall said. “They can stay on DeKoven Drive, still passing Washington Street onto Rapallo … And then Rapallo at Main Street is where they would turn right onto Main Street to go over the bridge, that’s the primary access over the bridge.”

A new turn lane will be added to Rapallo Avenue to accommodate northbound traffic.

Washington Street exit gone

At Washington Street, Exit 23C, there will be no more access to Route 9 North  and South. “Left turns to Washington Street are being removed to get rid of the signal on Route 9,” Hall said. “It’s a little bit counterintuitive, but that access actually caused a lot of problems with Washington Street and work significantly better if we remove the access at Washington.”

At Washington Street and DeKoven Drive, “it’ll be a much simpler intersection than what we have today,” Hall said. “Much shorter rail crossing, much simpler operations and significantly less traffic on Washington Street.

“It’s very challenging to get into Melilli Plaza at most times of the day because Washington Street backs up with so many vehicles,” he said. “That’s going to be gone by removing that access from Route 9 South to Washington Street.”

Farther north, at Exit 24, Hartford Avenue, “that northbound left turn to Hartford Avenue is being removed,” Hall said. “The other movements remain the same that are still accessed from Route 9 South free flow to Hartford Avenue. There’s access from Hartford Avenue onto Route 9 South and from Hartford Avenue onto Route 9 North.”

Those accesses to and from Hartford Avenue will be normal highway exit and entrance ramps, Hall said, eliminating the intersections with the signals.

New lane on to Cromwell

“Now once you get past St. John Square, that’s a free-flow acceleration lane and this left lane from Hartford Avenue continues all the way to Cromwell,” Hall said. “So we’re actually going to have three lanes north of the city to help get people out of the city as well.”

Another feature will be a wide pedestrian bridge to Harbor Park. “The city maybe a couple years ago started doing a lot of work with Cooper Robertson , an architectural firm for their Return to the Riverbend development,” Hall said.

“We met with them a few times, they had some ideas for a pedestrian bridge that’s really more of a destination than just a means of getting over Route 9.”

The bridge would connect with a raised platform planned behind Main Street. It’s actually part of a different DOT project that “would likely ride on the coattails of the removal of the traffic signals,” Hall said.

The traffic signal project’s $115 million cost will be paid for with 80% federal funds and 20% state funds.

The public meeting will begin at 5 p.m. with an open house, with a formal presentation at 7.

Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com .