Highway plans fail to intersect for Lamont and Rep. Larson

EAST HARTFORD — For three years, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, D1, has been promoting a multibillion dollar concept for burying the I84/91 interchange in Hartford. And that, according to a colleague, makes him unique in Congress.

Larson, 71, a congressman for 20 years, is not simply seeking federal funding. He is working outside the state Department of Transportation on his own infrastructure vision, one that would compete with plans being developed by the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont.

“John is uniquely persistent and vocal and visionary,” said U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, DOregon, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Larson and DeFazio held a press conference Friday in Great River Park to promote Larson’s tunnel, an event organized around three political and charitable fundraising events. Larson held a nearly identical news conference at the park in 2017 with DeFazio’s predecessor.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif., arrived at midday for a luncheon fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and planned to stay for Larson’s annual charitable party: A bocce tournament at a Knights of Columbus hall in the congressman’s hometown of East Hartford, where locals mingle with Connecticut and national pols.

Notably absent from the news conference at Great River Park was any representative of the Lamont administration, which has told Larson that his tunnel idea will not be an element of a 10year transportation plan in development by the governor. Lamont’s predecessor, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, also never endorsed the idea.

No one has a precise cost of Larson’s plan, since it has been sketched out only in schematics, not detailed drawings. But the congressman uses a ballpark figure of $10 billion, which could be as much as half of what Lamont intends to propose to spend on a statewide plan.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who attended the press conference, said major elements of Larson’s are attractive, namely correcting what he called “those two great planning sins of the last century” — cutting Hartford in half with I84 and separating the downtown from the Connecticut River with I91.

“I understand everybody’s skepticism, but how do I ask for money to repeat the mistakes of the last 50 years?” Larson said.

Lamont and Larson are not exactly at odds. The Democratic governor and congressman are allies, and Larson invited Lamont to a cocktail party in Hartford, where the governor mingled Thursday night with DeFazio and other members of Congress in town for Larson’s bocce tournament.

In an emailed statement, the governor’s communications director, Max Reiss, downplayed the differences in the transportation priorities of Lamont and Larson.

“The administration is incredibly thankful to have a partner in Washington like Rep. John Larson . ... The administration will continue to work with the Congressman and other federal partners on how the state can help with this vision with assistance from the Federal Government,” Reiss said.