The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘Bridge strikes are happening too often’
Since 2016, nearly 900 vehicles have struck train bridges: Here’s how some Conn. towns compare
A truck got stuck under a railroad bridge in Westport this summer, causing a section of Saugatuck Avenue to be closed for a couple of hours.
The situation, inconvenient as it is, is not at all uncommon in Connecticut.
The statistics
There were 876 incidents of vehicles striking railroad bridges in Connecticut from 2016 through 2021, according to data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“Bridge strikes are happening too often,” Josh Morgan, spokesperson and communications manager for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said.
Most of those incidents happened along the New Haven Line, though there were also a few on the Danbury Line and one Waterbury bridge was hit 84 times in that time, by far the most in the state.
“In Waterbury, due to ongoing work on the Mixmaster (Route 8 and I-84 interchange), drivers may be avoiding the construction area, taking local roads, and ignoring posted detour routes,” Morgan said. “Truck volume is likely higher in cities or locations with more commercial activities, which may lead to more bridge strikes.”
The number of strikes increased drastically for the Waterbury bridge. which spans Bank Street, in recent years. In 2016 there was one such incident, and none happened in 2017. But starting in 2018, the number of strikes went up to 13, and in the years since has been 21, 17 and 32.
Stamford had the bridge with the next highest amount of strikes during this period with 58 reported for the bridge over Elm Street.
In Milford, 55 incidents occurred at the bridge over Old Gate Lane.
Norwalk has had 48 incidents at the bridge at the intersection of Washington Street and Main Street. Less than four miles away, in Darien, 44 incidents occurred within that time frame at the bridge at Boston Post Road.
Greenwich has three bridges within the top 15 incidents in Connecticut in that time frame. These bridges are located at Steamboat Road (31 incidents), Tomac Avenue (27) and Luke's Crossing (25).
Comments about the strikes
Many times at that location, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said, vehicles will get backed up, causing a traffic jam and requiring police to respond.
Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo said he wasn't aware of the amount of incidents in town.
“People just have to pay attention and be aware of the height numbers on each and every bridge on each and every town,” he said. “You're going to have to do a little bit of research on for each and every trucking company and each and every truck driver.”
Milford Mayor Benjamin Blake said the bulk of the problems come from commercial drivers.
“They are not reading maps or looking at the signs,” he said. “They're relying exclusively on cellphone GPS.”
Blake said he has talked with local officials about the issue, but action needs to come from the federal level.
“This situation is one of those times where government oversight is appropriate,” Blake said.
Blake said there should be a requirement for commercial truck drivers to rely on commercial GPS devices, rather than ones on cellular devices.
“It indicates low bridges, indicates those areas that trucks are not permitted,” he said. “It's something that I think needs to happen.”
Camillo said the added issues are that there are more vehicles on the road and more distractions, specifically cell phones.
“We're getting complaints from various neighborhoods of traffic rerouting through these neighborhoods,” he said.
Camillo said navigation apps could also be part of the issue with the railroad bridges. He cited safety concerns from repeated impacts on the bridges.
“Every time there's a bridge strike, it compromises the safety of that structure that was hit,” Blake said.
Blake said there are at least two other underpasses in his city that vehicles hit often. Warning signs seem to have little effect, he said.
“A lot of the vehicles are getting off at Exit 40, and then going down Old Gate Lane,” he said. “There's at least a dozen and a half signs indicating the low bridge during that quarter-mile stretch. However, people are just not looking at those signs.”
Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons, Waterbury Mayor Neil O'Leary and Westport First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker did not respond to a request for comment. Darien First Selectman Monica McNally declined to comment.
Current and potential projects
Morgan said that CT DOT owns the portion of the MetroNorth New Haven Line in the state.
“There is an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to perform regular maintenance on the bridges and culverts along the line,” he said. “The roads under the bridges may be state or locally owned and maintained.”
Morgan said the DOT works with municipalities and local officials to ensure adequate warning signs are installed around the bridge areas. The department is reviewing the potential use of warning devices at certain locations prone to bridge strikes, Morgan said.
Rilling said there is technology available that can detect an approaching vehicle. It would activate flashing lights if the height is too tall for the bridge.
“However, it remains the driver's responsibility to pay attention, follow posted signage, and be aware of the vehicle size they are operating,” he said.
Morgan said the only way to increase clearance between the road surface and the railroad bridges is by raising the tracks or lowering the road.
“Both involve high costs and impacts,” Morgan said.
The cost and effort associated with raising a bridge was demonstrated in Bethel about 20 years ago, according to First Selectman Matthew Knickerbocker.
“The Route 53 railroad bridge is a historical sore point for Bethel, because it's so low that it can't take commercial traffic,” Knickerbocker said.
In the late 1990s, there was an opportunity to raise the bridge.
“I guess there was major track work that was going to be done by the state DOT, and in order to raise the bridge, you have to regrade one mile in each direction because trains can't take (steep) increase in grade,” he said. “So, effectively raising that bridge (requires) doing two miles of track, which is millions and millions of dollars.”
The grade increase also faced opposition due to the belief that raising the bridge would add commercial traffic to area roads.
Knickerbocker said he spoke to then-DOT Commissioner Jim Redeker about the bridge a few years ago.
“He came out to Bethel and we were inspecting the train station out here, getting ready to expand the parking lot at the MetroNorth station, and I said to him, ‘What are the chances that we can revisit that whole bridge thing and raise it?'” Knickerbocker said. “His answer was, ‘Probably not in our lifetime given all the other priorities the DOT has.'”
The DOT solution was to install steel barriers on either side of the bridge.
“So when a truck hits it, at least it's not damaging the bridge itself — it's damaging the barrier,” he said. “It's sort of like a guardrail that's up there. And if you look at it, you can see it's been dented many times.”
Locally, mayors and first selectmen have reached out to try and find solutions.
Camillo said he contacted the state to see if there could be a way to stop the rerouting through the residential areas, but officials said it was not up to them.
Blake said the town has suggested that DOT remove some concrete blocks on state property near the Old Gate Lane bridge to allow it to become a truck turnaround. But even if that happens, it still relies on drivers paying attention, and it is also very much a local solution.
“That's only a fix for that one bridge,” Blake said.