Days Are Numbered For The Old Railroad Bridge

By Dottie Evans

The infamous Church Hill Road railroad bridge whose low-slung span has scraped and crumpled the metal tops off countless container trucks that failed to safely negotiate its 12-foot, 7-inch underpass is about to be history.

In just 16 days, the battered old span will be removed and a newer, higher, wider version will be set down in its place.

Friday, June 20, is the date that the contractor Mohawk Construction of Newington has set to begin the critical transfer operation of new tracks for old. In anticipation of this, a 110-foot crane was moved onto the site Monday.

“We’ll be working 24 hours a day for six straight days to get this job done as quickly as possible,” said a contractor’s representative on Tuesday as he and several workers were preparing the site.

Other signs of imminent activity at the site include a contractor’s trailer, numerous orange spray-painted “call-to-dig” orders sprayed on the surface of the two-way blacktop road beneath the bridge, orange highway cones stacked nearby, a gravel pile, piles of steel girders, concrete barriers lined up, a back-hoe, and a bulldozer parked nearby.

The contractor had stopped work in December 2002 due to unfavorable winter conditions, but was unable to start up again in April because the railroad crew was detained in Massachusetts on another job and had not yet raised the rails.

The new bridge will be a full four feet higher than the old one, the abutments will be widened and the two-way road beneath will be rebuilt to leave room for a shoulder with sidewalk on each side.

The cost of the project is just over $2.7 million, 80 percent of which will be paid for through federal funds and 20 percent through state funds.

Construction And Kielbasa “Under The Lights”

Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley said Tuesday that for the most part, the Newtown police will keep traffic moving beneath the bridge overpass even during the week when the span is being replaced.

“Unless there is a safety issue, such as when the crane is actually working overhead, the police will be out there doing general traffic control during the time of peak flow. When traffic does have to be rerouted, it will bypass up Schoolhouse Hill Road,” Mr Hurley said.

“The detour won’t be in effect all the time, only as needed. Traffic will be slower but normal during the day.”

Mr Hurley pinpointed the most critical construction time as Monday, June 23, through Thursday, June 26, after the new span is in place and while workers will be on site all night between 11 pm to 6 am doing repair and roadwork.

“Two officers will be on between 8 pm and 7 am directing traffic.

“It’s going to be something to see when they rip those big trusses off and put the new ones on over a 72-hour span,” Mr Hurley added, referring to the weekend of June 21–22.

“It’ll be the first weekend of summer and I’m planning to drive up here with my daughters to see it,” Mr Hurley said.

“They did the sewers the same way. It’s actually quite fun when they work all night. They set up barbecues, cook kielbasa and burgers, and everything is under the lights.”