New look for rail span
Design tweaks ahead of forums
“The Department has worked collaboratively over the last several months with the City of Norwalk and other local stakeholders regarding the new Walk Bridge.” State Department of Transportation
NORWALK — On the eve of public information meetings, the state Department of Transportation has spiffed up aesthetically its planned replacement of the Walk Bridge over the Norwalk River.
“The Department has worked collaboratively over the last several months with the City of Norwalk and other local stakeholders regarding the new Walk Bridge. Significant changes that have been incorporated into this design,” the DOT said in a statement.
While the proposed new bridge remains a 240-footspan, vertical-lift structure, its two towers have been reconfigured to introduce an arch form. The change will enhance Norwalk’s cityscape and continue the aesthetics and way-finding tradition of the existing bridge, according to the DOT.
In addition, the DOT has replicated the treatment of the tower arches onto decorative railings approaching the main bridge span, integrated stairways and elevators within the vertical structures, opened the central portion of the pier adjacent to North Water Street, and made aesthetic refinements to the machinery rooms at
the tops of the towers and the control house.
“It’s all open, the structure — latticework rather than a closed structure,” said Norwalk Department of Public Works Director Bruce Chimento.
The changes come as a result of more than a year of discussions between the DOT, it engineering design consultant and a design advisory committee comprised of local officials and stakeholders.
“The design advisory commit
tee worked with ConnDOT’s consultant, HNTB, and over the last three or four meetings the design evolved from something that was more of an industriallooking, traditional bridge to something the design advisory committee thought was more iconic,” said Sue Prosi, Walk Bridge program manager for the city of Norwalk. “It was a very interactive process.”
Prosi said the design team worked with 3D models, exploring alternatives and getting feedback from the design advisory committee.
Public information meetings
On Tuesday, the DOT and HNTB will hold two identical information meetings to update the public on the roughly $1 billion bridge replacement project that is nearing 60 percent design and is slated to start in 2019. The first is scheduled for 4 p.m., the second for 6:30 p.m. Both meetings will be held at the Norwalk Concert Hall, 125 East Ave.
DOT and HNTB representatives will give presentations on construction progress, anticipated schedules and upcoming construction activities for two preliminary projects — track-andsignal upgrades either side of the
Walk Bridge — as well as updates concerning the bridge replacement itself.
“Attendees will learn about upcoming construction work, such as the replacement of the Ann Street Railroad Bridge on the Danbury Line, excavation and track work for the CP243 Interlocking Project on the New Haven Line and a Test Pile Program, which is anticipated to commence in the Norwalk River and surrounding areas later this year,” the DOT said in a notice of the meeting.
The public will have the opportunity to ask questions and speak one-on-one with project
representatives between the two sessions.
The DOT began planning the bridge replacement after the 122-year-old structure failed to close twice in spring 2014, disrupting Amtrak and MetroNorth Railroad trains and thousands of commuters.
The project faces a lawsuit from Norwalk Harbor Keeper, which maintains the DOT and federal government did not adequately explore a smaller, fixedbridge replacement option. The local conservation group wants the state to rethink the design of the new bridge. The suit is pending in federal court.