DEP Continues Review Of

Housatonic Bridge Project

By Andrew Gorosko

MONROE –– The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is well into its environmental review of a proposal to build a $40 million bridge across the Lake Zoar section of Housatonic River in Stevenson, to replace the deteriorating bridge atop Stevenson Dam.

Steven Derby, the supervising civil engineer with the DEP’s inland water resources division, said April 30 the DEP is about halfway through its review of the bridge construction proposal submitted by the state Department of Transportation (DOT).

DEP is awaiting comments from DOT on three aspects of the bridge construction project, Mr Derby said.

It is unclear when a DEP public hearing on environmental aspects of the bridge construction project would be held.

Of the bridge construction proposal, Mr Derby said, “I think they’re [DOT] making a very concerted effort not to have a negative impact on the environment.” The civil engineer was referring to the DOT’s proposed method of constructing reinforced-concrete bridge pylons, which would be positioned in the Housatonic riverbed to support the bridge’s deck.

The construction design is intended to avoid disturbing riverbed sediments, which are contaminated with the toxic industrial chemical polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB’s). “They’re [DOT] being very careful,” Mr Derby said.

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 a new bridge upriver of Stevenson Dam, rather than downriver of it, Mr Derby said. Constructing the new bridge upriver of the dam in deep water is more complex and expensive than constructing it downriver, he noted.

The Housatonic River level at Lake Zoar would remain unchanged during bridge construction, Mr Derby stressed.

Brian Cunningham, DOT’s manager for the Stevenson bridge project, said DOT hopes to start construction on the span in the spring of 2005 and have the bridge in service by sometime in 2007. Of the bridge’s $40 million price tag, about $35 million covers construction costs, with the remaining $5 million earmarked for design work, he said.

The new bridge has been in the planning stages for about a decade.

At its last public information session on the project held in May 2002, some area residents continued to question the need for a new span, saying the existing bridge atop the Stevenson Dam should instead be improved.

Opponents 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 proposes building a new bridge, which 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 upstream side of the bridge. A new bridge would sit 15 feet higher above the river than the existing bridge. After a new span is constructed, the existing bridge atop the dam would be barricaded to prevent access, but would not be removed.

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 built.

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. The projected design life of a new bridge is 80 years.