NORWALK, Conn. — South Norwalk residents got some good news at Monday’s Bike/Walk Commission meeting as Transportation Planner Greg Pacelli detailed a series of road improvements the city plans for the Flax Hill Road corridor.
Commissioner Becca Stoll had relayed a complaint from a neighborhood resident about the offset intersection of Flax Hill Road and Lowe Street. The area has poor sightlines and sees heavy traffic as a bypass for nearby Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.
“With a cursory look on Google Maps, I can totally see what the constituent is talking about,” Stoll said. “It’s a wide turn. There’s not sidewalks. And … it’s often a place that truck traffic reroutes to get around MLK and the train station.”
Commissioner Tanner Thompson, who lives in the area and said he goes through the intersection several times a week, agreed the intersection was “not optimal.” He said the flashing beacons that were recently installed had improved the intersection.
“I use them basically any time I walk to the train station. Drivers blow through them sometimes, but they’re definitely a welcome addition from my perspective,” he said. “If anything, a crosswalk along the end of Lowe would be nice.”
Pacelli said improvements were on the way. “The timing couldn’t be better.”
Flax Hill Road is scheduled to be repaved this year, he said. As part of the milling and paving, the Department of Public Works is doing sidewalk work along the entirety of the Flax Hill corridor, from Highland Ave. to Washington Street.
“So this intersection is being looked at so we can normalize it and kind of ‘T’ it up,” he said. The work would allow a shorter crosswalk on Flax Hill and a straighter stop line on Lowe to provide a better line of sight for vehicles at the intersection.
The department also plans to add signs warning drivers not to park near the intersection to improve sight lines further.
“It’s a pretty busy intersection there, with a lot of oncoming vehicles from all directions,” Pacelli said. He added the intersection “will definitely look a whole lot different and operate a lot different once those improvements go in.”
The road improvements are expected this year as part of the DPW paving program.
Commission Chair Emily Burnaman called Pacelli’s report “really great news.”
Thompson followed by asking if adding a bike lane on Flax Hill was feasible.
“Anecdotally, I ride this a lot, and I usually see a cyclist on the sidewalk because the road doesn’t provide very much room for a cyclist,” he said.
Pacelli replied that the city is “looking to incorporate dedicated bike facilities” on Flax Hill.
The improvements likely won’t please everyone, though, as the commission questioned whether there could be efforts to reduce truck traffic in the area. Pacelli said such restrictions were complicated.
“You could put ‘No Through Trucks,’ but that’s also determined by the State of Connecticut, and there has to be a justification to not allow them,” he said. “And even with that designation, if they have stops in Norwalk, they are allowed to utilize that road. So it’s very difficult to enforce something like that.”
Transportation Planner Greg Pacelli will update the Bike/Walk Commission on planned improvements to the Flax Hill Road – Lowe Street intersection during the commission’s March 3, 2025 meeting.
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