Huntingtown Road Bridge Replacement

Will Take Until Christmas

By Andrew Gorosko

The town has started a project to demolish the aging Huntingtown Road bridge, which crosses the Pootatuck River, and replace it with a safer, modern concrete-arch span that meets current transportation standards.

Workmen last week began bridge demolition to make way for the new bridge, which should improve traffic flow on the residential road.

While the bridge replacement project is underway, the hundreds of people who use Huntingtown Road daily in that area will need to take detours in their travels, said Public Works Director Fred Hurley. The basic detour for through-traffic in that area is to travel on the roughly parallel South Main Street, instead of Huntingtown Road.

The bridge project is underway on the section of Huntingtown Road lying between the parking lot for the Orchard Hill Nature Center and Huntingtown Road’s intersection with Orchard Hill Road.

Optimistically, a new span could be carrying traffic by Christmastime, provided that the project proceeds smoothly and all related public utility work moves swiftly, Mr Hurley. If problems crop up, however, such as weather-related delays or delays caused by utility work, the bridge replacement project could take somewhat longer to complete, he said.

After the existing bridge is demolished, much of the new bridge will be constructed of cast-in-place concrete, with some components built of precast concrete modules, Mr Hurley said.

As part of the project, the approaches to the bridge on Huntingtown Road will be improved, he said. The project will result in a flatter, less curving roadway near the bridge.

The new span will be 26 feet wide and will hold two 11-foot-wide travel lanes.

The structure will include a 20-foot-wide passageway through which the Pootatuck River will flow. The bridge deck will support 42-inch-tall railings on either side of the span.

Mr Hurley said he expects bridge construction and related work to cost approximately $400,000. Nagy Brothers Construction Company, Inc of Monroe is doing the construction project for the town. Anchor Engineering of Glastonbury designed the project.

Mr Hurley said that after snowstorms, the town plans to plow the parking lot at the nearby nature center so that school bus drivers will have a place to turn around the school buses that travel on Huntingtown Road.

The Huntingtown Road bridge replacement project has been in the planning stages for a long time, Mr Hurley said, adding that the project represents one of the more complex efforts in the town’s ongoing bridge replacement program.