Work on Bridge Near High School Could Start in Summer '07


FALLS VILLAGE — Work on a state project to replace a major bridge on Route 7 between Salisbury and Falls Village could begin this summer.

In a legal notice published in last week’s Lakeville Journal, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said it has made a tentative decision to approve the Department of Transportation’s application to rebuild the bridge over the Housatonic River between Lime Rock Station Road in Falls Village and the Salisbury town line. The bridge would replace and widen the bridge that now leads to an entrance to Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

"The plans have been finished for over a year," said Joe Cancelliere, a state transportation department supervising engineer. "The DEP permit has been holding us up, but we’re in the last stages of review."

Cancelliere expects the environmental agency’s watercourse construction permit to be issued in the next couple of months, at which time his department will advertise to contractors for bids on the project.

The new bridge will be 243 feet long, or about 20 feet longer than the current span. The bridge, which carries thousands of cars per week, will also be widened to 52 feet from 42. Instead of closing the bridge and that section of road completely, one lane across the river will be kept open almost continuously. A construction trestle will be built on the north side of the bridge.

Among other things, this will allow school buses to continue to cross the river there to get to the high school, instead of being rerouted.

"The contractor will perform certain construction activities from the trestle as a means of avoiding disruption of traffic on the bridge deck," Cancelliere explained.

Temporary traffic signals will be installed at each approach to the bridge, allowing traffic to pass in only one direction at a time. In addition, there will be approximately four to six weekend closures during the the project, at which time traffic will be detoured around the construction site, Cancelliere added. He did not know which roads would serve as detours.

Construction is expected to take two-and-a-half years. The cost of the project was originally estimated at about $7 million, but Cancelliere said rising steel and energy costs will likely push the final tally to "in excess of $10 million."

Constructed in 1931, about nine years before Housatonic Valley Regional High School was built, the bridge suffers from a structural deficiency, and is supported by a central pier that is rusted by decades of contact with the rushing river. The new span will run from bank to bank with no pier. It will be designed with trusses and constructed with "I-beams." The nearby railroad bridge will not be a part of the construction, the DOT said.

In addition to reconstruction of the bridge itself, both the bridge and roadway profiles are being raised and the roadway approaches are being reconstructed. A portion of Lime Rock Station Road is also being relocated and reconstructed as part of the project.

If the bridge project starts on time, that stretch of Route 7 will be a busy area. Bids on the redesign of the nearby intersection of Route 7 and Johnson Road are scheduled to be opened today, Feb. 8, First Selectman Pat Mechare said. Officials have said previously construction could begin in the spring.

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