While the vast majority of Newtown has resumed regular life following the near-historic rains of August 18, there are small pockets still feeling the effects of the unexpected storm. One small bridge is finally about to reopen.

Town crews began replacing the Jacklin Road bridge in earnest last week, after the aged bridge that had been carrying traffic over Limekiln Brook was undermined more than eight weeks ago. Jacklin is an east-west running road that connects Dodgingtown Road/Route 302 to Codfish Hill Road. Its bridge is to the immediate east of the Newtown-Bethel town line.

Town Engineer John Curtis said last week that water eroded away and “scoured out, or undermined, the soil from the footings of the bridge already in place” during the August storm. The soil fell away and caused the bridge’s abutments to slightly collapse, he said October 10.

The bridge being installed over Limekiln will allow the road to reopen to through traffic, but on a limited basis, he cautioned.

“This will be a one-lane bridge, with alternating traffic, when it does reopen,” Curtis said. “We’ll need to limit the loads for safety purposes. We may redirect heavier trucks and loads, but the bridge opening will allow residents and other small vehicles to get through again.”

A full replacement is already planned.

“The bridge is already on the list for full replacement,” Curtis said. “It will be rebuilt, the road widened again,” and then the location will again be open to all uses, he added. “This is a long-term, temporary solution now, to get this road open.”

This is not the first time the bridge being installed by Town of Newtown Public Works is being utilized. The bridge was previously used to carry traffic over Deep Brook, within the Fairfield Hills campus. It was disassembled from Fairfield Hills and moved to the Jacklin Hill work site.

Early last week Town crews began to establish footings for the replacement bridge, which has been installed over the previous bridge. As of last Thursday, Town employees installed the bridge’s major support members, and then added deck plates to the span itself.

“We were really lucky we had this,” Curtis said.

Reprofiling Jacklin Road began this week, according to Public Works General Supervisor Anthony Capozziello.

“This bridge deck has been completed, and they just need to build up the ramps to each side of the bridge,” he said October 16. Material was being trucked in to create ramps on either side of the bridge due to the new height of the span.

“They’ll pave that in, and then the bridge should be open by next week,” he said.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.