Stratford South End

Project Consultant: GZA

Location:

The geographic boundaries for this planning effort include: Employment Growth District and South End, from the intersection of Surf Avenue and Lordship Boulevard, to Access Road; Access Road from the intersection of Lordship Blvd. to Main Street; Main Street north to the intersection of Stratford Avenue; Stratford Avenue to Route 95; and Route 95 from the Stratford Avenue underpass south to the Surf Avenue exit ramp.

The South End neighborhood and Employment Growth District (EGD) (also known as the Opportunity Zone Census Tract) of Stratford were both assessed to have high current and future flood risks and identified as critical priorities for the Town of Stratford in its community resilience plan (2016). As Stratford has moved forward with implementation of the recommendations from the plan, several flood protection projects have been pursued towards the goal of creating a town-wide flood protection system. However, challenges and barriers to implementation have stalled some strategies from the plan. In particular, potential interactions between the Great Meadows salt-marsh, key state road segments managed by CT DOT, and operations related to Sikorsky Airport, have created permitting and negotiation challenges for identifying consensus solutions that would allow the town to move forward with a flood protection strategy, while minimizing impacts to neighboring land uses in the South End.

Situation: 

This planning effort will focus on detailed review of the proposed South End and EGD flood mitigation strategies from Stratford’s community resilience plan, provide an assessment of ongoing implementation challenges, and recommend updated or alternative strategies that can be developed as implementable projects, to maximize the town’s resilience goals for the South End community and EGD.

These alternative strategies may include but are not limited to: revisions or alternative alignments of key flood protection segments; site-scale flooding accommodation strategies for critical community assets; additional road and infrastructure elevations to support the creation of resilient corridors; green infrastructure or nature-based strategies to improve open space for flood management; and/or combinations of the above to create buffers and multiple layers of resilience for the continued long-term viability of the EGD and South End. Adaptation alternatives and implementation planning that are identified and carried forward to conceptual design will incorporate the Resilient ConnecticutPERSISTS criteria.