A man drove drove across the Hillhouse Avenue bridge Monday morning. That was news.
It was news because the bridge there had been closed since September of 2007. The city held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its reopening. Russ Tassie (pictured) held the ribbon. He’s the resident inspector on the project for Anchor Enterprises, which oversaw a $2 million repair of the 1910 roadway for the city. (The federal government and Yale covered the cost.)
The event was news also because it meant a respite — though just for now — for frustrated downtown drivers and pedestrians.
The Hillhouse bridge is one of three spans within two blocks enabling drivers to cross over the Farmington Canal trail. It sits right next to the Yale University Health Services building. A block away, another of the bridges is out, the Temple Street Bridge. The city’s fixing that one too. Having two bridges out has clogged traffic on surrounding downtown streets, especially at rush hour, not to mention forcing drivers to take detours.
City Engineer Richard Miller (at left in photo with ribbon-cutter Alderman Greg Morehead) said the Temple Street span should be completed and opened to traffic this coming April.
That’s a good thing. Because next the city needs to fix the Prospect Street bridge, too. That work will begin as soon as Temple Street opens in April, said Miller (the man who drove the first car over the Hillhouse bridge Monday). The feds and Yale will cover the $3 million cost of the Prospect bridge repair, too, as well as the $1 million Temple Street repair. The city won’t have to close the Prospect bridge immediately, but probably will need to starting some time in the summer, according to Miller. Which will lead to another round of congestion on Hillhouse Avenue and Temple, Grove, and Trumbull streets.
Monday was a day not for anticipating future gridlock but for celebrating an unclogged artery. And for reflecting on the Hillhouse bridge’s history, described in plaques included in the project.
The Farmington Canal Co. originally built a wooden bridge there in 1827. First it covered a canal, then, beginning in 1848, a railroad. Today it covers the Farmington hiking and biking nature trail that runs through Hamden and up through Wallingford (with an interruption, for now, in Newhallville).
As cars came into vogue, a new version of the bridge was built in 1910.
Work continues on pedestrian bridges on either side of the Hillhouse span. Miller said those should be done by the spring, at a cost of $2.5 million. Temporary walkways are in place for pedestrians. Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed the pedestrian bridges.
Traffic on Hillhouse now runs one-way, north, the way it did before the bridge’s closure.