Bridge Repairs Atop Stevenson Dam

Will Require Detours

By Andrew Gorosko

STEVENSON — Although the state Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to construct a new $40 million bridge across the Housatonic River to replace the antiquated, deteriorating bridge atop Stevenson Dam, the envisioned span will not be completed until about 2010.

Meanwhile, the two-lane bridge atop the hydroelectric dam, which links the Stevenson section of Monroe to Oxford via Route 34, continues to deteriorate.

Consequently, Northeast Generation Company, the electric utility firm that owns the dam and the bridge atop the dam, plans to repair to the deteriorating bridge during an upcoming two-month period, probably starting sometime in May. Northeast Generation Company is a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities.

Approximately $2 million will be spent on bridge repairs, said Northeast Generation spokesman Joel Weinberg.

Bridge repairs call for the span’s partial closure on weekdays, when alternating two-way traffic would be allowed to travel on it.

Also, the bridge would be completely closed to traffic on five alternating weekends during the two-month construction period, so that the bridge would not be closed to traffic on any two consecutive weekends.

The bridge’s complete closure on the five weekends would result in lengthy detours, considering the few locations where bridges cross the Housatonic River.

A firm schedule for those weekend bridge closures is not yet available.

Officials from the several towns that are affected by the planned bridge closures are scheduled to meet at 2 pm April 11 in Monroe Town Hall with Northeast Generation and with DOT officials to discuss the bridge closure schedule. Affected towns include Monroe, Oxford, and nearby Newtown.

Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley said he will attend that meeting to learn how the bridge closure plans would affect Newtown.

DOT will be responsible for traffic control during the bridge closures.

DOT engineer Brian Cunningham noted this week that when the Stevenson Dam bridge is completely closed to traffic on the five upcoming weekends, extensive detours will be required.

In those detours, motorists traveling eastward on Route 34 from Newtown toward New Haven would leave Route 34 in Monroe, travel along Route 111 to Route 110, follow Route 110 to downtown Shelton and then proceed back onto Route 34 in Derby. Westbound motorists on Route 34 would follow the opposite route.

Mr Cunningham said he expects that repair work will commence after the Housatonic River’s springtime water levels recede. Bridge repair work will include deck improvements, guardrail repairs, plus bridge bearing replacements. Dam repairs are not planned.

Although Northeast Generation owns and maintains the bridge, DOT is responsible for maintaining the asphalt surface atop the bridge’s deck.

Stevenson Dam was built between 1917 and 1919. Floodgates were added at the eastern end of Stevenson Dam about 50 years ago.

The 1,250-foot-long concrete dam, which is 124 feet tall, creates the 11-mile-long impoundment upriver of the dam known as Lake Zoar, which is heavily used for recreation.

New Bridge Planned

The DOT’s plans for a new bridge to carry Route 34 across the Housatonic River in Stevenson are under review by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  

The DOT has proposed a method of constructing a series of reinforced-concrete bridge piers in the riverbed that is intended to avoid disturbing riverbed sediments. Those sediments are contaminated with the toxic industrial chemical known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

To address public concerns about damaging the habitat of bald eagles, which migrate to the Stevenson Dam area during cold weather, DOT has opted to build the new bridge upriver of Stevenson Dam, rather than downriver of it. Bridge construction would stop during the wintertime, when eagles are present.

Constructing a new bridge upriver of the dam in deep water is more complex and expensive than constructing a bridge downriver of the dam.

The Housatonic River at Lake Zoar would remain at its current level during the bridge construction project, according to Mr Cunningham.

Cheryl Chase, a DEP civil engineer, said this week that after DEP concludes its review of the bridge construction project, it will conduct a public hearing on the environmental aspects of the bridge work. It is unclear when that public hearing will be held, she said.

Of the bridge’s $40 million price tag, about $35 million covers construction costs, with the remaining $5 million earmarked for design work.

The new bridge has been in the planning stages since the early 1990s.

At the DOT’s last public information session on the bridge project in May 2002, some area residents continued questioning the need for a new span, saying that the existing bridge atop the Stevenson Dam should instead be improved. Bridge project opponents have claimed that the presence of a new bridge would create more dangerous traffic conditions in the Route 34 corridor and would promote increased development in that area.

DOT’s plans specify a new bridge that would link Monroe to Oxford about 250 feet upriver of the existing bridge. The bridge would carry two 12-foot-wide travel lanes, and two eight-foot-wide road shoulders, plus a five-foot-wide sidewalk on the northern side of the bridge. A new bridge would sit 15 feet higher above the river than the existing bridge atop Stevenson Dam. After a new span is constructed, the existing bridge atop Stevenson Dam would be closed to traffic.

The existing bridge atop the dam is narrow and has sharp turns at both ends, requiring motorists, including tractor-trailer truck drivers, to drive slowly in the area. Two-way traffic on the existing bridge would be maintained through the area while a new bridge is under construction.

If Shepaug Dam, which lies 11 miles north of Stevenson Dam, should fail, the proposed new bridge would remain above the Housatonic River’s flood level. A new bridge would be designed to last 80 years.