Georges Hill Road in Southbury, CT reopens after 2024 flooding. On the coast, Westport approved $109M for a new Long Lots Elementary School to replace deteriorating facilities with mold issues, set to be ready by fall 2027. Excitement and gratitude expressed by school officials for the transformative project.
CTDOT photo
The state Department of Transportation made the announcement in a post on X that Georges Hill Road in Southbury, northwest of New Haven, was once again open to traffic.
The last Connecticut state roadway washed away in August 2024's historic flooding has reopened less than a year after it was destroyed, transportation officials said June 13, 2025.
The state Department of Transportation (CTDOT) made the announcement in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Georges Hill Road in Southbury, northwest of New Haven, was once again open to traffic.
Last summer's storms caused severe damage in the western Connecticut area, officials said, rendering many roads and bridges completely impassable. Since then, Georges Hill Road had been closed off, forcing motorists to take alternate routes.
In Oxford, another nearby town that was hit hard by the August 2024 floods, saw its last destroyed bridge reopened in March, CT Insider reported. Located on Park Road, the damaged structure was the seventh and final bridge that that community needed to be replaced in the storm's aftermath.
As for Southbury, Jeffrey Manville, a first selectman with the city, said the Georges Hill Road bridge was one of the dozens in the community that had to be shuttered due to the floodwaters.
After assessing the damage, local officials had reported that the town was hit with approximately $10 million worth of destruction from the floods and hoped to reopen Georges Hill Road by this spring.
Westport RTM OKs $103M for New Long Lots Elementary School
To the southwest, near the Connecticut coast in Westport, the community's Representative Town Meeting (RTM) approved the construction of a new Long Lots School with a $103 million price tag, the largest such expenditure in the city's history.
The RTM vote was unanimous for the new elementary school, which will finally replace one that has been well loved by families and staff but has deteriorated to the point where some classrooms are off limits due to mold issues, the New Haven Register reported June 16, 2025.
This process to build the new facility has been in the works for several years, with $6 million already allocated to the project, bringing the overall total budget to some $109 million, the Connecticut news source noted.
"I'm gushing with excitement," Westport Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Scarice said to RTM members during the June 12, 2025 meeting. "A school is not about bricks and mortar; it's the people in the building. We now can make the brick and mortar match the incredible people and programs in the school."
The current facility has some classrooms that are one-third the size of comparable classrooms in other elementary schools in the district, he said. With a number of classrooms closed due to mold, the school district has used portable classrooms to meet the space demands, which has come with an annual rental cost.
Plans for a new 128,000 sq.-ft. Long Lots Elementary School — which also houses Stepping Stones Preschool — will be built next to the existing facility on Hyde Lane. The school district expects the new school to be ready for teachers and students by the fall of 2027.
"We are thrilled and grateful for the approval of the new Long Lots and Stepping Stones Schools," Westport Board of Education Chair Lee Goldstein said. "This beautiful, safe, inclusive — [and] dry — school will serve our community for generations. Thank you to the numerous boards, commissions, committees and individuals who worked tirelessly to make this happen."
Once Long Lots School is complete, the older building will be razed by demolition experts, and other crews will finish the work to install the new athletic fields and parking areas.
"We have long known that the Long Lots facility has reached the end of its useful life," Scarice said in a June 13 email to staff and families, "and that the miraculous work in Stepping Stones Preschool has been performed in subpar settings. This decision marks a transformative moment for our students, our educators and the entire Westport community."
He also praised the Long Lots School custodial staff for keeping the facility "spotless in spite of worsening conditions" as well as the staff for delivering quality education "through disruption, facility failures and emotional distress."
In his email, Scarice also thanked the parents of the school's students, who, he said, "Spoke up, showed up, and never gave up, even knowing your own children might not benefit directly.
"You stood up not just for your own families, but for future generations of Westport students. Your selfless advocacy is a powerful reminder of what it means to believe in something bigger than ourselves," he said.
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