Westport bridge project will address flooding problems

WESTPORT — A new bridge project is expected to improve both infrastructure in need of repair as well as flooding conditions around Muddy Brook.

The town’s selectwomen recently approved $202,000 to Tighe and Bond for design work to replace the Hillandale Road Bridge over Muddy Brook. The project will also likely include some work on the brook itself to help mitigate the flooding issues.

“We’re not going to solve the flooding problems for Muddy Brook,” Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich said, adding this project could lessen it.

The bridge had issues several years ago caused by scouring, or when sediment is removed from the abutments. It prompted the town to do some emergency work, Ratkiewich told the selectwomen this week.

He said the “straw that broke the camel’s back” though was the flooding in September and October of 2018, that caused the bridge to collapse in 2019.

The town has already done some work, including a study back in 2016 that looked at Muddy Brook.

“You can’t design a bridge in a vacuum,” Ratkiewich said, adding the study looks at what’s happening both up and downstream of the bridge.

The original bridge was 11 feet wide, though the town widened it slightly during the emergency repairs. The new bridge will likely be 20 to 25 feet wide, Ratkiewich said.

He said the town has changed a lot since the 1930s when the bridge was put in, including becoming more developed.

The project will also look to expand the stream bed to lessen the flooding.

“That will open up the waterway,” he said.

Residents started an online petition a few months ago calling for the town to do something about the flooding around Muddy Brook. The petition calls for meaningful action to address and correct the issues connected to the natural watercourse and stormwater there.

“These issues are causing flooding, erosion and property damage particularly in the section between Post Road East at Morningside Drive South and Center Street at Greens Farms Road,” the petition reads. “This is a long overdue issue that needs to be addressed ASAP!!”

Ratkiewich said they received four bids for the project with varying details. Some had already done some design work.

“We decided on Tighe and Bond in the end because their proposal was reasonable,” he said. “It was well thought out.”