Thomas Breen photos
Cutting the ribbon on the rehabbed Ferry St. bridge.
Construction crews wrap up work before bridge's official reopening.
Cars and trucks looking to cross between Fair Haven and Cedar Hill can use the Ferry Street bridge again, now that the state has wrapped up a $3 million rehab of a span that has been closed to traffic for the last five months.
City, state, and federal officials gathered on the eastern edge of the bridge at the intersection of Ferry Street and Middletown Avenue Friday morning to cut the ribbon on the soon-to-reopen crossing point.
Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Joe Giulietti said that the Ferry Street Bridge, which was built in 1912 and which was closed for rehabilitation in April, will reopen to vehicle traffic later on Friday after the state finishes changing over and bringing back online the traffic signals adjacent to the bridge. (Less than an hour after the press conference concluded, state DOT spokesperson let the Independent know that the bridge has now reopened to vehicle traffic.)
Over the past five months, Giulietti said, state workers and construction crews have replaced the bridge’s “stringers” and floor beams. “The bridge deck was completely removed, and new steel and concrete was poured,” he said. All of that work required the bridge to be closed to car traffic — even as it remained open to pedestrian and bicycle crossings — because of the state’s need not to disrupt the active rail tracks that run directly underneath the bridge.
He said that the last major rehabilitation of this bridge took place over 30 years ago.
“The work here will ensure that motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists will be able to safely travel across this for at at least the next 20 or 30 years, if not more.”
Kenya Adams Martin.
Time and again on Friday, speakers stressed that the Ferry Street bridge may be small, but it sure is mighty — in terms of connecting Fair Haven and Cedar Hill, serving as an entry point to New Haven for cars coming off of the highway, and providing a critical crossing for everything from ambulances to school buses to public works vehicles.
This is a “small bridge that is a big gateway to communities, and opens up Cedar Hill to Fair Haven” and to the highway, said Cedar Hill neighborhood activist Kenya Adams Martin.
State Rep. Roland Lemar.
“This bridge and the connections it makes to and from our communities has been a lifeblood for a number of years,” said New Haven State Rep. and state legislative Transportation Committee Co-Chair Roland Lemar.
He described the rehab work as “outstanding,” singling out the “bright, white pedestrian crossing signs” and crosswalk for praise.
“We’ve got a lot more to do across the state,” he added. Thanks in part to the surge in federal funding for infrastructure projects, Lemar said, “we’re going to see a lot of projects like this coming to fruition and updating our aging infrastructure to the 21st century.”
State Sen. Will Haskell and DeLauro office staffer Lou Mangini.
Westport State Sen. and fellow state legislative Transportation Committee Co-Chair Will Haskell emphasized that same federal-funding point during his time at the mic.
“I feel so fortunate that we happen to be living through this historic moment when it comes to transportation infrastructure,” he said.
He and Lou Mangini from U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s office described how Connecticut will be getting 40 percent more money for roads and bridges per year for the next five years thanks to the recently passed federal infrastructure bill.
“The Biden Administration … has mobilized more resources to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century than frankly our country has seen since the Eisenhower Administration,” Haskell said. “This is not the start, but it’s not even close to the end.”
And Mayor Elicker heralded this project as being “on budget and almost on time.” Given the challenges faced by complicated government infrastructure projects at a time of supply chain crunches, he said, that’s no mean feat.
“The work is beautiful,” he said, and reopens a critical crossing point for Cedar Hill and Fair Haven neighbors alike as well as for all of the emergency vehicles and other motorists looking to cross from one area to another.
State St. detour, no more.
Contributed photo
Bus crossing the newly reopened bridge Friday morning.
Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full press conference.