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Funding approved for Norwalk River Bridge renovations
What year will MTA and the State of Connecticut start removing the Norwalk Bridge?
At the risk of sounding greedy, one can only hope ConnDOT and the local pols haven’t forgotten about the other three critical bridges also in need of major rehab or replacement, namely the Mianus (1905), the Saugatuck (1904), and the Housatonic (1905). Actually, the Mianus carries more traffic than the others because it alone of the four hosts the mostly half-hourly Stamford Locals that operate 7 days a week.
Sure it’s gonna cost. In a sidebar to an article by Trains passenger/transit writer, Bob Johnson in the February 2014 issue, “Bridge Out: With replacement fiunding sporadic, aging drawbridges maybe the Northeast Corridor’s weakest link”, replacement of the four ConnDOT-owned bridges in today’s $$$ will be in the neighborhood of $2 billion. The pols will go nuts at that pricetag. But none of those low-lifes raise an eyebrow at the reported $9 billion we sent to Iraq, in our unbelievably misguided attempt at nation-building, that no one in the Bush 43 administration can account for.
But hey, if I sound greedy I’m nothing like the highwaymen in every state DOT, including Connecticut’s, who, if given their wishes, will pave over the entire state. I read a couple of years ago and before the high-profile derailment/sideswipe between Fairfield and Bridgeport, that state officials were beginning to realise that the New Haven Line needed major upgrades to improve reliability and reduce trip times. Some ConnDOT officials countered with proposals to instead add another lane in each direction to I-95. Those people will never give up unless the politicians have the spine to stand up to them and insist the transit alternative offers more mobility and economic growth/job creation than feeding the highway lobby does.