Cribari Bridge: What If …?

What’s next for the Cribari Bridge?

“Adaptive rehabilitation”? A complete replacement?

Those are the most talked-about options, for the 143-year-old span.

But one “06880” readers is thinking outside the bridge — er, box.

He offers an idea that may seem improbable, perhaps impossible.

But back when Grover Cleveland was president, the idea of a bridge that opened laterally to let Saugatuck River traffic through may also have been considered way out there.

A detail of the Bridge Street Bridge, from Robert Lambdin’s Saugatuck mural.

At this point, nothing should be off the table. So “06680” presents it, for discussion. The reader writes:

What about an entirely new bridge and road next to the I-95 bridge, on one side of it or the other?

It would go from the Saugatuck Avenue parking lot underneath the I-95 bridge (next to Black Duck) to Compo Road South, using Elaine Road.

(Elaine Road leads into Westport Animal Control and the public boat launch under I-95. It is currently one-way; it would have to become two-way to bring traffic onto Compo Road South. The current exit road from the boat launch area loops just north of Elaine Drive; it takes traffic via Underhill Parkway onto Bridge Street, opposite The Saugatuck co-op residences.)

Elaine Road (red balloon), the I-95 bridge, and environs. Click on or hover over to enlarge.

This would alleviate traffic in the Saugatuck bottleneck area on Riverside Drive.

The Cribari Bridge could receive basic rebuilding, as a passenger car or possibly pedestrian-only bridge.

It seems that a temporary bridge will be necessary during the project. Why not make a better positioned permanent bridge?

Aerial view.

Meanwhile, another reader offers a suggestion for construction.

Ray Broady moved to Westport in 2014 from Southern California, with his wife of 55 years, to be closer to their daughter and granddaughter. Ray spent his career in contracting. He writes:

I realize the state Department of Transportation is trying to meet state and federal mandates, with regard to traffic.

DOT is going override the town’s wants and wishes, and move ahead with a big concrete bridge that bypasses historic preservation and careful outcome needs of our community.

We can slow and stop this outcome if we bring to DOT at the March 19 meeting (6 p.m., Town Hall) a viable consensus plan of how the Cribari Bridge can be replaced with a wonderful matching historic-looking truss bridge that is a little wider (not a lot), has better approaches, still provides the opening swing span, will have a slightly taller clearance for small boats when closed, can be built in shorter time versus standard build for a new temporary bridge, and does not disrupt traffic badly during the new bridge final in place finish.

I have come up with a plan of how this can be easily accomplished. The concept is a new historic truss Cribari Bridge replacement.

Several fabricators and builders in the country can build a new historic truss-look bridge structure in 3 separate sections. There are 2 ways to accomplish this.

The East Main Street Bridge in Newark, Licking County, Ohio is 35 feet wide. Two lanes, with bicycle and pedestrian ways, itt was fabricated by US Bridge in Cambridge, Ohio.

One is to float construction barges in the river sides near the launch ramp area and under a portion of I-95 overhead, where floating cranes can assemble partially finished structures to assemble the 3 main sections for the bridge.

The other is to construct the 3 new bridge sections on barges at another site, and float them up the Saugatuck River mouth and into position when ready to set them.

These new bridge sections would have top truss sections 13′ 6″ inches above the finished bridge roadway. This would preclude large semi-truck trailers crossing the new bridge.

The new bridge should be reset in a straighter line with the Bridge Street end. This will allow new concrete footings and end approaches to be constructed without demolition of the old Cribari Bridge sections

This will mean little to no lengthy closure of the bridge traffic, and produce a complete new historic-look bridge in a greatly reduced time frame.

The river is scheduled for dredging, including the area under the bridge at both new and existing locations, to create better river depths at low tides.

The new bridge pieces can be floated on the barges, and set on the new footings and approaches. DOT might be excited about this form of construction, as they just finished an “out of the box” bridge replacement using the build and move bridge for exit 17.

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