Ganim: State to help pay for bridge

BRIDGEPORT — The state will help Mayor Joe Ganim keep a promise to open the long-shuttered Congress Street Bridge.

Ganim’s office announced late Thursday that the Department of Transportation “has made a commitment” to foot half of the estimated $24 million tab for the bridge connecting the downtown to the East Side across the Pequonnock River.

The state’s portion includes $3.7 million previously approved by justretired Gov. Dannel Malloy’s administration in December.

The original Congress Street drawbridge got stuck in the open position in 1997, during Ganim’s first administration. He was re-elected in 2015. For some, it became a symbol of stagnation of an old manufacturing city, and the rusty hulk was finally torn down in 2010.

The mayor’s hasty Thursday statement — which specified there would “a formal announcement” Jan. 19 — came just a few hours after Hearst Connecticut Media reported that state Sen. Marilyn Moore was “leaning toward” running against Ganim this year.

The news about the Congress Street Bridge shows the advantages Ganim enjoys as an incumbent to announce progress on policies and initiatives over the next few months to prove to voters he deserves another four-year term.

But Moore has also played that game. She has an influential role in the state’s grant-awarding process. And back in December, Moore’s office beat Ganim to announcing tens of millions of dollars worth of state grants for Bridgeport, including the $3.7 million for the Congress Street Bridge.

Ganim in Thursday’s announcement added, “we appreciate all the work that our state legislators have done to champion this project.”

He also thanked federal lawmakers who pushed to declare that section of the Pequonnock non-navigable so the city could install a fixed bridge rather than a more expensive replacement drawbridge.