Jehochman wrote:The I-84 viaduct replacement is the hangup to double tracking thru Hartford's station,has there been
ANY kind of movement on that? As long as that is not pinned down,can understand Amtrak+ConnDOT not
wanting to do any work on the RR viaduct/station area except for needed repairs.
There are studies underway but it will be billions of dollar. The basic plan is to straighten the curves, moving the highway a bit west toward that neighborhood you mention. What's undecided is whether there will be a new viaduct, grade level highway or a tunnel. Under one plan the rail line would move west a couple hundred feet. The station building currently houses offices. The actual station in the basement annex should be replaced or moved to the original atrium that's virtually unused.
See: http://i84hartford.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
CTDOT has a related project called Hartford Rail Alternatives to replace the viaduct. Dates are TBD. The I-84 Project is scheduled for environment stuff and community input until 2017, then design work through 2019 and finally to start construction in 2020 and finish in 2025.
Nothing's fleshed out, but the general consensus at looking at some of the prelim design alternatives was that it was going to be easier to relocate the tracks out of Union Station:
http://www.transystems.com/Home/News-Pr ... nagem.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
The blow-up map isn't loading for me for some reason today, but here's the gist of it:
-- Past Park St. where the tracks/busway and current highway converge is start of project limits. Highway sunk into a cut here so the Aetna Viaduct can come down.
-- Capitol Ave. reconstructed here to daylight it from all the ramps and rail overpasses it goes under.
-- Between Laurel St. and Sigourney St. 84 and the tracks converge into a single unified cut.
-- Instead of passing under, the tracks get realigned to stay in the cut bolted to 84 West along the current sunken highway between Broad St. and Asylum St. Somewhere around here the busway is reconstructed to turn out onto the street grid.
-- Between Asylum and Church St./Myrtle St. the tracks go into a new station cavern, opposite the block from current Union Station. I would guess future-proofed for at least 4 platform tracks + a freight passing track.
-- The station becomes an air rights super-block:
http://goo.gl/maps/ILnAo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. So the triangle between Spring St. and Spruce St. at the entrance to the current station gets decked over, some new parking lot or garage goes up, the new train station bunker and the existing station building get connected with walkways across the parcel, and it becomes an even bigger station complex with the old train station just serving the buses and tix offices.
-- Tracks spit out of the bunker after Church St. with enough running room for the wye track to be reinstated to the Griffins Branch and tracks meet back on the current alignment at Hoadley Pl.
-- Old tracks in Bushnell Park demolished for more parkland, and I'm guessing the old RR viaduct over Asylum and Church becomes some sort of grade-separated path out of Bushnell Park.
Add 15 years and whatever billions that'll take to finish, but that's pretty much their preferable option. Trains would no longer stop at the old station and would be in a somewhat dank little bunker, but the old station would still be the all-modes transportation center...and a much bigger one at that since it would span the whole block and deck over the highway. So in the real world it's quite a bit of a net-gain for intercity travelers and an enhancement in status for the old station despite the trains being relocated off the roof.