Stevenson Dam Bridge Closure Poses Lengthy Detours

By Andrew Gorosko

STEVENSON — Motorists traveling on Route 34, who normally use the bridge atop the hydroelectric Stevenson Dam to cross the Housatonic River, should be prepared to take lengthy detours for the coming two weeks while the bridge is closed to all traffic to allow major bridge deck repairs to be made.

The state Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to close the bridge atop the dam to all traffic starting at 7 pm Friday, August 12, through August 26. The DOT had earlier said that the closure would begin at 9 pm on August 12, but has now moved up the closure time to 7 pm.

The bridge closure will allow workers to make the types of bridge repairs that they have been unable to accomplish during a bridge renovation project, which has been underway since June.

The bridge’s closure will result in lengthy detours, considering the few locations where bridges cross the Housatonic River.

During the bridge closure, Route 34 motorists will be directed to use Route 110 and Route 111 as detour routes.

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.

Electronic signs are posted in the vicinity of the bridge to provide advance notice of the bridge’s two-week closure.

Electronic signs will be positioned on Interstate 84 in Newtown and on Route 34 in Ansonia/Derby on August 12 to inform motorists of the bridge’s closure and the need to seek alternate routes.

Northeast Generation Company, the firm that owns the bridge, is conducting the $2 million repair project. Stevenson Dam was completed in 1919. 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.

Following the two-week bridge closure, the project will occasionally require alternating one-way traffic on the bridge. Such alternating traffic would occur between the hours of 9 am and 3 pm.

The bridge repair project is scheduled to be completed by September.

On July 29, the State Bond Commission approved funding for a DOT project to build a new bridge to carry Route 34 across the Housatonic River. The $34,185,000 bridge replacement project includes $27,348,000 in federal funds, plus $6,837,000 in state funds.

The DOT plans to construct a new bridge across the Housatonic River to replace the antiquated, deteriorating bridge atop Stevenson Dam, but the new span will not be in service until about 2010.

The new bridge would be constructed about 250 feet upriver of the existing bridge atop Stevenson Dam. The Housatonic River at Lake Zoar would remain at its current level during the bridge construction project. The new bridge will be designed to last 80 years.

Construction of the new bridge is projected to start in the spring of 2007. The bridge project has been in the planning stages for more than a decade.