Traffic on many highways in Connecticut is exceeding their capacity, and the state Department of Transportation has come under fire for focusing more on maintenance than on improving capacity.

Statewide, 15% of roadways are over capacity - but in the southwestern portion of the state, that number jumps to more than 40% of roadways at or above capacity, according to a report to the state legislature's Program Review and Investigations Committee. Out of 308 urbanized areas nationwide, the Stamford region had the 13th highest number of daily vehicle miles per mile of interstate highway.
I-95, built in the 1950s, has seen traffic headed south into Stamford nearly double in the past 20 years, and truck traffic on the already congested route is expected to double in 10 to 15 years. State officials estimate that the weekly traffic today is four times the number the road was designed for.
The state DOT recommends widening Interstate 84 from the New York border to Southbury and is studying a widening in Waterbury, according to the Associated Press. The agency also has recommended that I-95 be widened east of New Haven and is designing a widening of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge over the Quinnipiac River in New Haven. These projects would cost billions of dollars and take years to finish.
A study in 1985 concluded that I-95 needed as many as three more lanes in each direction and the Merritt Parkway needed two more lanes in each direction. But the state dropped any plan to widen the Merritt after it was placed on the National Register of Historic Placed in 1991.
As for the I-95 project, with a price tag of billions of dollars, the DOT decided to pursue a maintenance program rather than highway expansion - a strategy that was criticized in the legislative report.
With 79% of freight moved by trucks in the state, officials also are looking at ways to reduce traffic by moving more goods by rail or ship.