Addressing attendees of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 2025 Spring Meeting in Hartford, CT, Governor Ned Lamont (D) (above) stressed the critical role transportation plays not just to the economic health of his state but for the New England region and the nation as a whole.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
“We are a pretty old state, so when we talk about infrastructure, we talk about old bridges and congestion on our roads,” he said. “We are working on bridges built in the William McKinley and Dwight Eisenhower [presidential] eras.”
The governor also emphasized that, as Connecticut is also “a very dense state, with more people and buildings per square mile than most,” there is a greater need for more creative transportation solutions.
“We don’t have the room to expand our roads. Out in the western and southern states, you can add an extra lane or two to a highway.” Gov. Lamont said. “But in our state, we don’t have that capacity. That is why we need to think creatively.”
He pointed to the CTfastrack bus rapid transit system that serves Hartford as an example of that “creativity” in action. Built around a 9.4-mile former railroad right-of-way converted into a bus-only “guideway,” the now 10-year-old CTfastrack system features nearly $550 million in built or planned development near its stations.
“We now have 1,000 housing units built or planned along that [CTfastrack] corridor,” the governor noted. “That guideway is so important as a way to get more cars off the road.”
The governor also stressed that similar ideas could generate bigger benefits more broadly, especially as Connecticut serves as a major transportation hub and supply depot for the Boston and New York City metropolitan regions.
“But that does not work if people and goods can’t get in or out,” he said. “That is why I think the infrastructure bill [the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act] is one of the most important pieces of legislation in my lifetime. This is a long-term strategic investment in our nation. But I want to make sure the federal government sticks to it. It’s important to our state, our region, and our country.”
Those are but some of the reasons why Gov. Lamont said that AASHTO has a key role to play in helping harmonize the needs of the U.S. transportation sector.
“That’s why we love AASHTO – you can’t do transportation unless you do it with other states,” he explained. “We need to think regionally when it comes to transportation and that’s why what you are doing at AASHTO is so important. Transportation is so important to our state – it opens up an ecosystem of opportunity. That’s why what you are doing is so important to our economy as well. And it is only going to get more complicated as the years go on.”
