Though the town recently approved funds for temporary repairs, a failing bridge on upper West Road will need to be replaced, officials say.
Located just north of the intersection at Turtle Back Road, the bridge saw its southerly headwall fail during a storm in June, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
A Newington-based consulting firm assisted with the repairs and since then, Mann said, the town additionally asked WMC Consulting Engineers “to do an analysis of the bridge and then put together a proposal.”
“We went out to the [Connecticut Department of Transportation] and were accepted for a 50 percent grant for the replacement of the bridge,” he said during a Dec. 17 meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall.
New Canaan would pay about $921,000 toward the total $1.8 million cost to replace the bridge, he said.
During the meeting, the selectmen unanimously approved $5,840 for professional services in connection with the emergency repair from the summer. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the contract. Public Works has money in its current budget for the repairs, Mann said.
It wasn’t immediately clear when work would need to commence on a replacement of the bridge, how long it would take or whether it would be traversable—for example, by a single alternating lane of traffic—during construction.
A line item in the town’s continuously updated Five-Year Capital plan listed as ‘Bridge at West Road’ shows a $250,000 earmark sought for next fiscal year and $1.5 million for fiscal year 2021 (see page 56).