The state Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to select by October the firm which will make major renovations to the steel-truss span over the Lake Zoar section of the Housatonic River, commonly known as Silver Bridge. The bridge links Glen Road in Sandy Hook to River Road in Southbury.

DOT is reviewing five bids submitted for the bridge renovation project, according to DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick.

The apparent low bidder for the project is McNamee Construction Corp of Lincolndale, N.Y., which submitted a bid of $4.474 million. The four other bids ranged from $4.626 million to $5.362 million, he said. The DOT had estimated construction costs at about $5 million.

Construction work is slated to start next year on about April 1, Mr Nursick said. Completion is projected for June 2016.

When considering that the project would not be completed by the winter of 2015-16, the contactor will meet with DOT and Newtown and Southbury officials to plan for winter travel safety on the bridge, including snow removal and other travel safety factors.

As part of the bridge improvement project, it is expected that the span will need to be completely closed to traffic for seven days to allow bridge deck repairs to be made. It is yet unclear when the bridge will be completely closed to traffic.

The contractor who is awarded the construction bid will submit a proposed work schedule, including bridge closure information, for DOT review, according to Mr Nursick.

The bridge, which now is painted brown and stained by rust patches, locally has long been known as Silver Bridge due to its former silvery paint color.

As part of the planned renovation project, the bridge will again be painted silver, based on local requests. A past renovation project resulted in the bridge being painted brown.

The two-lane, 308-foot-long bridge is listed by DOT as “Bridge 00507.”

It is expected that Interstate-84’s Rochambeau Bridge, which crosses the Housatonic River about 6,000 feet downriver of the Silver Bridge, will be a component of a detour for traffic that would normally use the Silver Bridge while the Silver Bridge is completely closed to traffic.

During much of the bridge renovation project, alternating two-way traffic would cross the Silver Bridge.

Besides the Rochambeau Bridge, there are few bridge crossings of the Housatonic River in this area. The nearest upriver crossing is the Route 133 bridge, which links Brookfield to Bridgewater, and the nearest downriver crossing is the Route 34 bridge at Stevenson Dam, which links Monroe to Oxford.

The Silver Bridge renovation project will include repairing the span’s steel trusses, repainting steel members, cleaning and painting of the bridge’s bearings, and renovating the structure’s concrete deck.

The DOT’s original plans for the bridge’s improvement have been modified, reducing the estimated cost of the project from approximately $6 million.

Those changes include repairing the bearings and repairing the deck, instead of replacing the bearings and replacing the deck. The changes mean that the period during which the bridge will be completely closed to traffic will be shorter than would have been necessary if the bridge deck were to have been completely replaced.

The bridge currently is listed by DOT as “structurally deficient.” The span was constructed in 1936. The DOT performed a major improvement project on the bridge in 1986.

The bridge is listed on the Connecticut Historic Bridge Inventory and is eligible for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The span carries about 3,100 vehicles daily.