Funding Approved For Railroad Bridge

The State Bond Commission has approved funding in the amount of $4 million to pay for the replacement of Conrail Bridge 460 over Route 6 in Newtown, and $500,000 to replace the bridge on Route 25 over Cold Spring Brook.

“I am very pleased that the Bond Commission approved funding for both of these projects,” noted State Rep Julia Wasserman. “It means the Department of Transportation will finally be able to proceed with the replacement of the inadequate Conrail bridge over Route 6. Once the work is complete, the new structure will be higher and better able to accommodate trailer trucks, which occasionally collide with the present bridge. New bridge abutments also will be installed to make the underpass as wide as the highway.”

Mrs Wasserman has been working for six or seven years with DOT personnel, local elected officials, and railroad representatives to get this bridge replaced. The old bridge has been a traffic hazard for many years. When it is removed and replaced, traffic will be able to move through this section of Route 6 more efficiently and safely, Mrs Wasserman said.

Bids for the railroad bridge project were opened July 25. Utility poles will be moved beginning in mid-August before construction gets underway in early October. The project is expected to be completed by early fall, 2002.

The Bond Commission at its meeting July 20 approved funding for both bridge projects.