The Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) has approved a wetlands/watercourses protection permit for an approximately $3 million town project to replace the bridge that carries Walnut Tree Hill Road over the Pootatuck River, about 300 feet north of Glen Road in Sandy Hook.

The project, which has been in the planning stages since 2007, also has received environmental approvals from the US Army Corps of Engineers and from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

Following a review of the bridge plans and some discussion, IWC members on June 8 unanimously approved the project, which is intended to improve vehicular travel in the area.

The project will replace an outdated 80-year-old bridge, which has tight curves at both ends, with a longer, wider modern span that has gentler curves at both ends.

Town Engineer Ronald Bolmer told IWC members that realigning Walnut Tree Hill Road at both bridge approaches will make for better vehicular travel in the area.

"It's structurally deficient," Mr Bolmer said of the existing span.

Except for a portion of the bridge's eastern abutment, the entire existing structure will be removed to make way for the new bridge, Mr Bolmer said.

The bridge replacement project will be done in two phases to allow alternating one-way traffic, which will be controlled by temporary traffic signals, to flow through the area, he said.

The new bridge will be 33 feet wide, including two 12-foot-wide travel lanes, two two-foot-wide shoulders, and one five-foot-wide sidewalk. The existing bridge is 22 feet wide.

Also, the existing 40-foot-long bridge will be replaced with a new 61.5-foot-long bridge that includes a 56-foot span.

Existing storm drainage structures in the area will be modified as part of the bridge replacement project, Mr Bolmer said.

The project's work area will occupy about nine-tenths of an acre. As with the existing bridge, the new bridge will cross the Pootatuck River just upstream of that river's confluence with the Housatonic River at Lake Zoar.

The IWC approved the bridge project with seven technical conditions.

Construction work is expected to start this summer and be completed by the fall of 2017.

The existing bridge, which consists of reinforced concrete T-beams supported by concrete abutments, will be replaced by prestressed concrete box beams plus reinforced concrete abutments with adjacent wing walls, or retaining walls.

A report on the project submitted by the town to the IWC indicates that the existing bridge has "poor deck geometry" requiring the replacement project. The report states that a 2012 inspection found the existing bridge to be in "fair" condition.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said the bridge project is expected to cost somewhere between $2.8 million and $3 million overall. The federal government would cover 80 percent of the costs, with the town covering the remaining 20 percent, he said. Local funding for such bridge projects is listed in the town's Capital Improvement Plan, he said.

Noting the large number of motorists who use the Walnut Tree Hill Road bridge over the Pootatuck River, it was decided to construct the new bridge in stages to allow alternating one-way traffic to continue crossing the river there during new bridge construction, he said. A complete bridge closure would cause very long detours in the area.

The construction project would enter a winter shutdown period in late 2016, after which it would resume in the spring of 2017, he said.

Mr Hurley said he expects that the town will soon advertise for construction bids on the project.