Five Rest Areas Will Get 183 New Spaces
Christian Metzger
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — The Connecticut Department of Transportation announced a $31 million investment in expanding truck parking at rest stops across Connecticut.
Rest areas in Middletown, Southington, Madison, Southbury and Vernon will get 183 new parking spaces, officials said.
Construction began in October at the Middletown Rest Area, located off I-91 near Exit 20. The $3.8 million project, which will add 11 truck parking spaces to the lot, is projected to be completed in September 2025.
The Middletown Rest Area was the first expansion site, as the state owns all the land necessary to begin the project. The other rest areas will see even more significant expansions, with upward of 40 additional parking spaces planned for Southington, and as many as 60 planned for Vernon. Currently, there are 420 truck parking spaces statewide. When the project is completed by the end of the decade, the state will have about 600, officials said.
The new parking areas will have improved drainage and lighting.
Trucking industry officials have pushed for the expansions, citing a shortage of parking spaces across the state. The shortage has led truckers to park alongside the shoulder of the highway, on off-ramps, or in residential areas, causing a potential hazard for truckers and other drivers, officials said.
“On average, drivers lose about an hour’s worth of their driving, an hour of service, trying to find parking,” said Motor Transport Association of Connecticut President John Blair. “They stop early. So obviously, that affects supply chain issues.”
“The truck parking shortage has plagued the trucking industry for decades, and the consequences of insufficient capacity are as wide-ranging as they are severe,” he said in a news release. “The scarcity of truck parking spaces across the country decreases safety for all highway users, exacerbates the industry’s longstanding workforce challenges, diminishes trucking productivity, and results in unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. The effort here in Connecticut will undoubtedly make our roads safer.”
According to officials, truckers are required to drive for nine hours and take 10 hours to rest. Because of that, officials said, it is important to make areas secure and comfortable for drivers.
“We’ve seen the trends of truck traffic continue to grow in Connecticut since 2020 to now we have a lot more truck traffic than we did before the pandemic,” said CTDOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto. “I think our economy has shifted. People want things now; they order, and they want it delivered tomorrow. So there’s a lot of that on demand, and the industry has shifted, so we just see trucks all the time, and we’ve built out.”
The project is also a key investment for the state. Connecticut’s freight transportation system supports more than 451,000 jobs and produces $50.5 billion annually in gross regional product, officials said.
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