Westport bridge closed until November for rebuilding

WESTPORT — Construction has started on a project that will finally bring the Bayberry Lane Bridge back to two lanes of traffic.

The project on the bridge, which spans the Aspetuck River, has been years in the making.

“We’re glad it’s moving forward,” said Town Engineer Keith Wilberg. “It feels good.”

Work started Wednesday with the closure set to start April 28. The closure is expected to last through Nov. 30, according to a news release from the town.

The project will increase the span of the bridge from approximately 25 feet to 70 feet. The design also allows for the utilities to be run under the bridge, according to earlier meetings on the project.

A detour will be in place from Easton Road to Coleyton Road to North Avenue to Lyons Plain Road to White Birch Road. Signs will be in place before the closure happens and residents who live adjacent to the bridge have been notified, officials said.

Emergency services in Westport and Weston, as well as the busing representative for the schools, will also be notified, officials said.

Town officials are asking motorists to “drive with additional caution, allow extra travel time, and obey all detour and safety signals.”

The detour is the same as the one in place back in 2014 when the town did emergency repairs on the bridge.

At that time, the work was done to extend the life of the bridge after “significant structural deficiencies” were found that had been caused by “scour” from recent storms. The damage is caused when sediment, such as sand and rocks, is washed away by swiftly moving water from the base of the bridge abutments, which could eventually undermine the structure’s strength.

The town addressed it and reopened the bridge.

A few years later in 2017, the state downgraded the bridge and told the town the bridge’s outer beams could no longer support “full traffic loads” and the town had to rely only on the center beams, making it a one-lane bridge until the entire span could be replaced.

The town bodies approved the funding to design the new bridge back in 2019 or so and approved nearly $2.4 million for the construction last year.

While the Representative Town Meeting appropriated the full amount, the town is expected to be reimbursed 80 percent through the federal local bridge program, meaning the actual cost to the town will be about $500,000.

The project was awarded to New England Road Inc., which came in with a bid for nearly $2.1 million this winter, Wilberg said.

Wilberg said people often don’t realize how much time goes into repairing a bridge and how long it takes for the design work and needed approvals.

He said he remembers the public outreach meetings a few years ago on the project, as well as the repairs done back in 2014, and it feels good to be moving forward on it.

“This bridge has been on the radar for a while,” Wilberg said.