Evergreen paving causes inconveniences for students

Evergreen paving

Cali Kees
November 1, 2018

Traffic cones and construction signs have been littering the streets that connect to Evergreen Avenue over the past few weeks.

On Wednesday, many roads were closed due to the most recent project a part of the Hamden Paving Program and these road closures may continue until Thanksgiving.

“The paving started a week ago Monday, we are expecting it to go to about Thanksgiving,” Craig Cesare, director of Hamden public works, said.

This project comes after numerous complaints from residents as well as an independent study that is done on all Hamden roads.

“An independent study is done on all of our road system[s],” Cesare said. “So an evaluator comes in, they actually give us a grading system for the roads you know scores, so that’s a big component in it.”

Many Quinnipiac students who live off campus, live off Evergreen Avenue and this project has caused several inconveniences for them.

“There was one day in particular where my drive home was kind of ridiculous because I was rerouted twice,” Emma Spagnuolo, senior, said.

Matt McAuliffe, junior, has also experienced delays driving to and from school.

“It was only a six minute, maybe less change,” McAuliffe said. “But it was still a little frustrating because after a long day that’s the last thing you want to be doing, is changing your route home.”

Something that also concerns both students and residents are the raised bumps in the road.

“Sometimes you miss the bump sign and it hits the tires hard so I just really hope that it doesn’t ruin my tires in the long run,” McAuliffe said.

But Cesare has said throughout the Evergreen Paving project there has only been one issue with these raised bumps.

“I think there was one flat tire,” Cesare said. “We try to avoid, we try to warn them but sometimes they don’t always abide by the rules of the road.”

Hamden Mayor Curt Leng tweeted Wednesday morning about the Evergreen paving project.


He also said that Braeside Drive off of Sherman Avenue would be the next road to be paved as a part of the Hamden paving program.