Wider Foot-Bike Path Coming To Rehabbed Bridge

The newly rehabbed Grand Avenue Bridge won’t just be adjacent to a public park along the Quinnipiac River.

It will be a public space in its own right, with a newly widened path for pedestrians and bicycles that will look south over the water.

City Engineer Giovanni Zinn made that pitch to alders during the latest City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) committee hearing in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

Zinn presented the alders with two orders related to the upcoming, extensive rehabilitation of the Grand Avenue Bridge, the 121-year-old rotating bridge that connects Fair Haven and Fair Haven Heights.

One order would allow the mayor to accept $12.5 million from the state for the roughly $25 million project.

The other would allow the city to permanently expand the right-of-way adjacent to Quinnipiac River Park in order to expand the bridge’s current southern sidewalk from roughly 7 feet wide to a minimum of 10 feet feet wide, thereby converting that pedestrian crossing into a shared, multi-use path that looks down the river towards the Ferry Street bridge.

“A view from the bridge looking down the river is very picturesque,” Zinn told the alders. ​“It’s an opportunity to create a bit of a public space here.”

The alders on the committee voted unanimously at the meeting this past Thursday in support of both orders. Now the full Board of Alders will consider the matter in a final vote.

The first order would allow the mayor to accept funding from the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) and sign any associated agreements related to the bridge rehab. The city has already secured a commitment from the state of $12.5 million in State Local Bridge Program funding. Those state dollars represent a 1:1 match of $7.6 million in city capital funds and $4.9 million in Federal Earmark and Surface Transportation Program already gathered for the project.

The bulk of the rehab work will involve replacing the bridge’s mechanical and electrical systems, including all of the wheels at the base of the 1898-built bridge that allow it to rotate. The construction will also see the replacement of both steel approach spans, which are original to the bridge’s 1898 construction, as well as the installation of an exodermic deck that should reduce the weight of the roughly 1.5 million pound swinging span by around 100,000 pounds’ worth of materials.

“And that’s all weight you have to move very regularly and very efficiently,” he said. ​“So that also helps with the life of the bridge.”

The second order would allow the city to expand the southern sidewalk of the bridge to a minimum width of 10 feet to accommodate a shared use path. Zinn said the new path will be 14 feet wide in most places.

“We think this is a wonderful neighborhood promenade,” he said. The newly expanded southern crossing would be not just for pedestrians, but for cyclists, strollers, and other non-automobile users.

In an explanatory letter that Zinn sent to the Board of Alders on Jan. 11, the city engineer wrote that the city’s Parks Commission is in favor of the permanent right-of-way expansions of slightly over three feet, and that the commission approved such an expansion at its November 2018 meeting.

In order to achieve this wider south-facing multi-use path, Zinn also proposed that the alders grant a 15-foot temporary adjustment beyond the three-foot permanent right-of-way adjustment in order to provide access to build the new bridge abutment and sidewalk.

“While often this is accommodated through a construction easement,” Zinn wrote, ​“in this case a temporary adjustment of the right-of-way is more compatible with the requirements of the project.” He therefore requirested that the right-of-way be adjusted a further 15 feet south until July 1, 2022, when construction should be complete and the right-of-way will revert to the three-foot permanent adjustment.

Zinn said that the sidewalk on the north side of the bridge will remain unchanged at around 7 or 8 feet wide.

Anything But Black

Westville Alder Adam Marchand then brought up a question at the center of a recent neighborhood meeting about the upcoming construction project: What color will the bridge be?

Zinn said the city has not yet decided on a color, and that he plans to continue talking with neighbors about suggestions.

He said he would prefer just about any color to the bridge’s current color, which is black.

“It tends to get the bridge hot,” he said, ​“and the fire department has to go out and hose it down.” The reason for the hosing? The black color of the bridge attracts so much heat on scorching days that the underlying steel expands. The fire department then needs to head out and hose down the bridge to keep the temporary steel expansion under control.

Newhallville/Prospect Hill Alder Steve Winter asked Zinn if the city would be up for determining the future color of the bridge through ranked-choice voting, an electoral method that allows voters to rank in order their preferences among different candidates, as opposed to throwing their entire vote behind just one.

Zinn said he would certainly be open to using ranked-choice voting to come to a conclusion on the bridge color, if neighbors are amenable.

“I think it’s intriguing for this generation to leave its mark on a landmark in New Haven,” Zinn said, ​“respecting the past but also putting its own spin on it.”

“I think ranked-choice voting could be the answer,” Winter said.

Zinn said the rehabbed bridge should have a lifespan of roughly another 100 years. The rehab should begin this fall, and vehicle closures should last all of 2020 and perhaps through the middle of 2021.