City Council Approves $2 Million Toward $13.9 Million Allen Street Project

In a special meeting on Wednesday, the New Britain City Council approved $2 million toward the $13.9 million Allen Street project.

The project is to alleviate mounting concerns about flooding caused by drainage infrastructure in need of improvements affecting the neighborhood between Allen Street and Roxbury Road near CCSU neighborhood. That neighborhood has been facing serious problems with flooding because of overdue infrastructure improvements.

Neighborhood activists, Council members and state legislators have been pressing for full funding the project, and some expressed disappointment that the project was not being funded more. A Democratic proposal to increase the allocation to $3 million in that meeting had defeated on a 5 to 5 vote in a Council committee meeting last week.

The partial funding for the project was agreed to as part of a compromise in which a series of other bonding proposals was approved in March. State legislators and local officials have been hoping for state funding to support the project, but local residents and a number of Council members have been expressing frustration that the city have not moved forward with the project.

The Council’s Majority Leader, Ald John McNamara (D-4), whose district includes most of the affected area, and is a resident of that that neighborhood, spoke at Wednesday’s meeting in support of getting the project done in 2025.

Ald Neil Connors (D-4), who also represents Council Ward 4, said that he supported the proposal as a compromise.