- Leaders to Watch: Gabriella M. Circosta-Cohee, Town of Greenwich
- Signal Spotlight: Greenwich Arch Street Corridor Adaptive Signal Project
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Safety Matters: Safe Streets and Roads for All – Grant Program
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Innovation Station: Drone Safety Day – June 18, 2022
- Town Crier: Public Works Employees Celebrated in Meriden
- Social Media Corner: Fairfield Public Works Instagram
- Federal Highway Administration Details Efforts to Advance Complete Streets Design Model, Improve Safety for All Road Users in Report to Congress
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Complete Streets Spotlight: Town of Ledyard – Multi-Use Trail Project (Video)
- NE APWA Chapter Connects: Recruiting and Retention in the Workforce (Video)
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Gabriella M. Circosta-Cohee, Town of Greenwich |
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Gabriella M. Circosta-Cohee, P.E. is a Senior Civil Engineer with the Town of Greenwich Department of Public Works Engineering Division and has more than 20 years of experience working in both the private and public sectors of this field. As an integral part of the Department of Public Works, she designs and executes crucial capital improvement projects related to transportation, bridges, traffic signals, remediation, waste disposal, and stormwater infrastructure.
Prior to joining the Town of Greenwich, Gabriella worked at Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers in Woodbury, NY. Gabriella received her bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in 2001 from Manhattan College and her master's in Environmental Engineering in 2006 from Manhattan College. She has also completed the CTI Transportation Leadership Program through the Connecticut Training & Technical Assistance Center (T2 Center).
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For the past 14 years, Gabriella has provided professional engineering services for several departments within the Town of Greenwich, assisted in the Town budgeting process for capital improvement projects as well as administration and inspection of construction, and served as the Town Administrator for projects involving MSAT District 3 coordination. She recently received her Part 107 Drone Pilot license. Her attention to detail and broad technical background have aided in the successful completion of many complicated projects. Recent or current notable key projects include:
- Round Hill Road Bridge Construction – Federal/Local Bridge Program Funding – $2.5M
- Bailiwick Road Bridge Construction – Federal/Local Bridge Program Funding – $2.5M
- Sound Beach Ave Bridge Design & Construction – LOTCIP Funding – $3.5M
- Adaptive Signal Control Technology along the Arch Street Corridor – CMAQ Grant $2M
Gabriella is a devoted mother of three children and enjoys spending time with her family, cooking up new recipes and spending time in nature.
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Signal Spotlight: Greenwich Arch Street Corridor Adaptive Signal Project
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In late April, the Town of Greenwich Department of Public Works unveiled the long-awaited Arch Street Corridor Improvement project, which was funded through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program. Arch Street is a minor arterial in the town and connects I-95 to Route 1 and to downtown Greenwich, which includes a railroad station, retail and commercial businesses, large office facilities, the town’s Teen Center, Greenwich Harbor, recreational facilities, a hotel and numerous restaurants. The roadway has an Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) of approximately 35,000 vehicles and serves numerous pedestrians. |
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The improvement project’s highlight was the installation of Adaptive Signal Control Technology (ASCT), the first ASCT project in Connecticut. The project strategically installed cutting-edge Miovision cameras on traffic signals to collect and analyze traffic data on directional traffic flow, vehicle delay, and lane queue length. These cameras can detect the type of vehicle (car, SUV, truck, tractor-trailer) traveling through the intersection as well as pedestrians and bicyclists. Intelligent software receives the current traffic information provided by the cameras and automatically optimizes the traffic signal timing. Each traffic control box communicates with the others in real-time through a fiberoptic network loop. Additionally, the pedestrian signals were converted from exclusive to concurrent to further optimize signal operations.
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On May 16, 2022, The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced that the application process is now open for communities of all sizes to apply for $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2022 funding to help them ensure safe streets and roads for all and address the national roadway safety crisis. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s new Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) discretionary grant program provides dedicated funding to support regional, local, and Tribal plans, projects and strategies that will prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries.
“We face a national crisis of fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways, and these tragedies are preventable – so as a nation we must work urgently and collaboratively to save lives,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The funds we are making available from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help communities large and small take action to protect all Americans on our roads.”
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The primary goal of the SS4A grants is to improve roadway safety by supporting communities in developing comprehensive safety action plans based on a Safe System Approach, and implementing projects and strategies that significantly reduce or eliminate transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries. Applications may come from individual communities, or groups of communities and may include Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), counties, cities, towns, other special districts that are subdivisions of a state, certain transit agencies, federally recognized Tribal governments, and multi-jurisdictional groups.
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Drone Safety Day – June 18, 2022
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In 2019 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) organized "National Drone Safety Awareness Week" which was hosted annually until 2021. This year, we're evolving our approach with ONE Drone Safety Day!
On this site, you will be able to browse all the Drone Safety Day events, sign up to attend, and submit your own event.
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Drones are the fastest growing segment of aviation in the United States. As of January 2022, over 860,000 drones have been registered with the FAA, and over 260,000 Remote Pilots have been certified by the FAA. These numbers are projected to continue to grow.
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Public Works Employees Celebrated in Meriden |
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The City of Meriden marked National Public Works Week with a truck parade and other events over the weekend.
Families gathered on the Meriden Green on Saturday to watch how trucks operated, to hear the winners of the “Name-A-Truck” contest, participate in the touch a truck portion of the event and draw on the sidewalk with chalk. The Meriden Public Library had its Bookmobile available and the Meriden Humane Society had a booth as well.
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“Not only does it give us a chance to engage the community in what we do and really let them see firsthand what our employees do and what our trucks are and what they do, but it also helps us celebrate our employees,” said Mayor Kevin Scarpati.
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Social Media Corner: Fairfield Public Works Instagram |
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Did you know that almost 50% of adults in the United States use social media as a source of news? Social media is part of our everyday lives and is a great tool to have in your agency's communication toolbox. Some Connecticut Public Works Departments (DPW) have created their own social media accounts so that they can get information out to their residents in real time. The results have been extremely positive; the accounts have become a great resource for the agencies' residents. We are going to feature a DPW social media account each month to highlight the great things being shared with Connecticut's residents. |
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The Town of Fairfield's Public Works did a great job promoting National Public Works Week through their Instagram account. Not only did they post great pictures of their crews, they used the week to educate their residents of what it really takes to care for a municipality. Here is an excerpt from one of Fairfield DPW's posts: |
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Check out their Instagram account today (and don't forget to follow them), fairfieldctdpw. |
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Federal Highway Administration Details Efforts to Advance Complete Streets Design Model, Improve Safety for All Road Users in Report to Congress |
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The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today released a report to Congress detailing the agency’s commitment to advance widespread implementation of the Complete Streets design model to help improve safety and accessibility for all users. The report identifies five overarching opportunity areas that will inform FHWA as it moves ahead with its efforts to increase the proportion of federally funded transportation projects that are routinely planned, designed, built and operated as Complete Streets. |
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In FHWA’s Report to Congress, titled “Moving to a Complete Streets Design Model: A Report to Congress on Opportunities and Challenges,” FHWA adopts Complete Streets as its default approach for funding and designing the majority of federally funded roadways in the US. Almost 70 percent of roads on the National Highway System are not access-controlled freeways, and these roads serve a wide variety of road users and purposes. These roadways, which include most arterials in urban areas and many small-town main streets, are the focus of FHWA’s Complete Streets initiative.
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Complete Streets Spotlight: Town of Ledyard – Multi-Use Trail Project (Video)
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Gain a rural perspective on Complete Streets and learn how a multi-use trail project is going to improve safety and make connections for Ledyard residents. |
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NE APWA Chapter Connects: Recruiting and Retention in the Workforce (Video)
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Finding and keeping strong, qualified employees is more difficult than ever. Challenges span from smaller candidate pools to high turnover from competitors incentivizing a job change, the changing generational expectations of the employees, and more. These challenges are felt across both the private and public sectors and pose a serious problem for the future success of each entity, especially with an aging work force and the consistent loss of institutional knowledge.
Our selected panelists discussed the issues that communities and companies are having, the strategies they utilize to generate interest in their open positions to attract high quality candidates, and how to keep them as part of their team for years to come.
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Along with our Facebook page, the T2 Center now has an Instagram page! Click on the icons below to like the T2 Center on Facebook and follow the T2 Center on Instagram! |
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If you have any ideas or suggestions for future Connecticut Crossroads topics, please feel free to email the designer Regina Hackett at [email protected]
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