The next step toward the possible completion of Route 11 could be harder to achieve than originally thought, and the highway is in danger of becoming hung up in a string of bureaucratic runarounds, say two proponents of the project.

Also, to add to the frustration of supporters, a letter sent last week informed the state that federal funding approved in 2005 is for a bicycle and pedestrian path, not a greenway.

All along, the understanding of local supporters has been that the $14.4 million in federal funding was mostly meant for acquiring property for the greenway, a buffer of open space on either side of the highway.

“We have an impasse here that needs to be resolved,” said Peter Sielman, chairman of the Route 11 Greenway Authority Commission, at the commission's meeting Friday morning.

The project, which has repeatedly run into delays in the approximately 12 years since it was resurrected, has most recently been stalled for about six months, awaiting an approval from the Federal Highway Administration before it can move to design and other stages.

That approval would come in a document called a Record of Decision. State and federal officials have said that the highway administration will not sign the document until Connecticut submits a financing plan that demonstrates the state has the ability to pay its share of the approximately $1 billion project.

Now there could be additional caveats before the document is signed.

Sielman said he spoke to Brad Keazer, a key highway administration official Thursday, who told Sielman he needs a “greater level of comfort” from the state Department of Environmental Protection before signing the Record of Decision.

The state DEP has supported the widening of Route 85 over the completion of Route 11. In December, the agency submitted an eight-page letter to the highway administration and to the state Department of Transportation that questioned whether the highway's completion is the best option.

Sielman said Keazer told him he needs an indication that the state DEP would approve of the highway's completion before Keazer will sign the Record of Decision.

Ned Hurle, a planner with the state DOT and one of the lead administrators of the project, told the commission at its meeting Friday morning that he has had a similar conversation with Keazer.

“I don't necessarily see things the way (Keazer) does,” Hurle said.

Keazer, a division administrator with the highway administration, declined to speak in any detail Friday and said he wouldn't comment on what the Federal Highway Administration is asking for from the state.

“I guess we are ready to go if we get the indication from everybody that this is what they want to be doing,” Keazer said.

Keazer would not specify whether, by “everybody,” he meant the state DEP as well as the DOT.

If so, the move would be a perplexing one. The state DEP does not have control over final permitting for the project, which is in the hands of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Also, any permits issued by the state DEP are years away and would come after the project is much further along - steps that could only happen after the Record of Decision is signed, money is released and the project is closer to a final design.

As for the $14.4 million, Keazer sent a letter last week to acting DOT commissioner James Boice, copied to Hurle, Sielman and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, informing them that the legislation states that a bicycle and pedestrian path, not a greenway, would be built.

Keazer's letter goes on to outline a number of steps needed to build a bike and walking path.

A spokesman for Courtney's office said the congressman only learned of the issue a few days ago and said Courtney is “working with all stakeholders and agencies to determine what process exists to rectify the problem.”

It is still unclear whether the money is in jeopardy or whether the mistake is nothing more than a technicality.