Talking Transportation: The Folly of a Bridge to New York

Why is much of Connecticut talking about a bridge from Bridgeport, across Long Island Sound, to New York State? How did we get sucked into a debate about a project that every transportation expert I spoke with said just won’t happen?

You can blame (or maybe credit?) Connecticut housing developer Stephen Shapiro for this distraction as he pipe-dreams way outside his area of expertise.

“A reporter from The CT Post called me to talk about housing,” he told WFSB’s “CT ‘25”. “I always liked the idea of a bridge. And now this thing has ballooned into a massive story.”

He even helped by generating a lovely artificial intelligence image of the structure, complete with red, white and blue towers, which was gobbled up by the media.

A 14-mile bridge, costing a guesstimated $50 billion? It’s a good thing Shapiro didn’t dangle the idea of flying cars to the reporter.

Shapiro has never built a bridge. His expertise is in affordable housing projects in cities like Bristol, Fairfield, Milford and Easton. That’s great, and certainly needed. But a bridge? Nah.

I asked CDOT about the idea of such a bridge and they said “None of the regional MPOs (regional planning agencies) have this in their long-range plans. It is not in CTDOT’s long-range plan for the state either.”

It’s not that our state’s planners lack vision … just money. They must focus on the feasible, not fanciful.

Shapiro says a cross-sound bridge would get Connecticut residents to the lovely Long Island beaches faster. But that’s hardly the justification for a $50B bridge. And anyhow, what’s wrong with Connecticut’s beaches?

As for the $50B estimated price … Shapiro says the new Tappan Zee Bridge replacement, the Mario Cuomo Bridge, cost $4B for its three-mile length. “If you prorate that out to 15 miles, it’s $20B,” he says. Factor in inflation and adding a train line on the bridge and you’re at $30B. Rounding upward, because things always cost more than planned, and he suggests a $50B price tag is reasonable.

But is that a fair calculation? Is that how Shapiro bids on housing development jobs?

And what would it cost to drive across this hypothetical bridge? Shapiro suggests a one-way toll of about $40.

Compare that to the one-way fare of about $75 for a car and driver on the Bridgeport–Port Jefferson ferry. That makes Shapiro’s bridge look like a bargain … except only those who take the ferry pay the fare. Build a bridge and all of us taxpayers pay for it, even if we never go to the Hamptons.

And if there were a bridge, wouldn’t that just worsen traffic in Connecticut with more New Yorkers going to New England?

The idea of bridging Long Island Sound has been studied by experts as recently as 2017. They concluded that there were serious environmental issues and maybe 10 or more state and federal agencies would need to be involved. Most concerning, the report said that tolls would cover only 22% of the debt service (with guess-who paying the difference) and that it would take five years to plan and eight years to build.

Meantime, our state’s housing crisis is happening right now. I wish Shapiro would focus on his real skill-set and not dangle unfeasible, bright shiny objects in front of a click-hungry media.

Editor’s Notes: i) Jim Cameron is the founder of the Commuter Action Group and advocates for Connecticut rail riders. He writes a weekly column called ‘Talking Transportation,’ which is published by a number of publications in the state.
ii) ”Talking Transportation” recently won first place in the general column/commentary category in the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Contest.