On the evening of August 10, New Haven-area drivers may have noticed the northbound lane of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, or Q-Bridge, closed. Department of Transportation (DOT) Spokeswoman Eva Zymaris said the closure allowed K&J Tree Service, a Hamden-based tree company, to film an advertisement.
“CTDOT issued the permit in consultation with the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD),” said Zymaris. “The permit authorized a 30-minute period between 8:00-8:30 p.m. for filming. While DECD’s Office of Film manages this process, CTDOT conducted an internal review to determine if there were any issues or concerns, such as potential damage to infrastructure. CTDOT was also involved in making sure there was appropriate liability insurance.”
While a photograph provided to Inside Investigator clearly shows a sign stating “I-95 North Closed New Haven,” Mark Dixon, Production and Location Services Manager for the DECD’s Office of Film, TV and Digital Media, said, “there was no closure of the highway.” When asked whether his office, or the offices of DOT and other state agencies, had ever received complaints for road closures?
“Yes,” Dixon said.
K&J’s advertisement, along with a behind-the-scenes look at its filming, was available on their website, but the page has since been taken down. The takedown occurred after Inside Investigator left a voicemail requesting comment for this story. Prior to the page’s takedown, K&J said that the shoot required collaboration with State Police, DOT, the FAA, Emergency Dispatch Centers, and municipal government. The page explicitly boasted that the matter was further complicated by the fact that “you can’t close a highway to practice closing a highway.”
“Putting a convoy of K&J trucks onto one of Connecticut’s busiest highway corridors required weeks of calls, emails, meetings, applications, maps, revisions and correspondence across multiple state agencies and public-safety organizations,” the site read.
Per the Office of Film, TV and Digital Media’s website, the office exists to “serves as liaison between production companies, state agencies, municipalities, production facilities, local crew and vendors,” and administers the state’s film tax credit. The site also claims that the Office of Film “successfully serves hundreds of major TV networks and producers, movie studios, commercial producers and more, resulting in millions of dollars in economic benefit to Connecticut, its businesses and ultimately its residents.”
Prospective film producers who wish to shoot in any of Connecticut’s publicly owned locations must apply for a permit from the Office. Examples of such locations included on the permit application are railroads, roadways, highways, state colleges, and facilities owned by a variety of state and quasi-state agencies, such as the Department of Corrections or the state’s Port and Airport Authorities. Dixon said that roadway applications are most commonly requested and most easily granted, while railroad requests are the hardest. Requests for highway film permits, like K&J’s, are “granted infrequently due to the low demand — one or two permits every couple of years,” said Dixon.
Dixon said that before granting a permit, his office consults “with the production company, the DOT and the local communities.” He estimates that his office gets “one or two applications per year,” and that most are granted. The last time a major production required a DOT permit was in 2021, said Dixon, for Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, a Netflix-original horror movie based on a Stephen King book of the same name.
Zymaris and Dixon both told Inside Investigator that the state receives no revenue from granting permits. Zymaris told Inside Investigator that it is “the permittee’s responsibility to issue a press release and notify the public of potential delays.” Inside Investigator could not find any advance notice of the closure; K&J did not respond to a request for comment.
Editor’s Note: After publication, K&J Tree Service relaunched the page, linked in the 5th paragraph, where you can see the commercial, but removed mention of the highway’s closure.
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