Is consensus forming around the Cribari Bridge?
A historic meeting last Sunday addressed a concern among many residents: that when state Department of Transportation officials hold a public meeting tomorrow (Thursday, 6 p.m., Town Hall auditorium; click here for the livestream), they’ll hear such a wide variety of opinions about the future of the 143-year-old span, that they’ll just plow ahead with their “preferred alternative”: a structure high and wide enough to handle tractor-trailers that may use it whenever traffic on nearby I-95 is jammed.
The 4 groups — Westport Alliance for Saugatuck, Save Westport Now, the Westport Preservation Alliance and Greens Farms Association — had never met together.
But members of all 4 — representing interests on both sides of the Saugatuck River — gathered at Kneads, a few yards from the bridge.
Part of Sunday’s meeting at Kneads.
Their goal was to present a united front at tomorrow’s session.
They agreed on 3 main ideas:
- Traffic — including safety, congestion and pollution — is the primary concern.
- The bridge’s history must be considered.
- The bridge’s “viewscape” is important.
All 4 organizations then agreed to support “adaptive rehabilitation” of the Cribari Bridge.
That means widening the bridge, making vehicular traffic safer, adding bike lanes and making the pedestrian walkway more safe; rehabilitating (not replacing) the existing truss; repairing and strengthening piers and buttresses, using preservation methods; and weatherproofing and waterproofing the mechanical elements that open when vessels pass underneath.
Cribari Bridge (Photo/Ferdinand Jahnel)
“Adaptive rehabilitation” does not include raising the bridge’s height. The goal is to keep large trucks off it — and off the narrow streets of Saugatuck, and residential Greens Farms Road too. (A full explanation of the “adaptive rehabilitation” plan for the Cribari Bridge appears at the end of this story.)
The Westport Preservation Alliance’s Morley Boyd calls this “a hybrid approach” to rehabilitation. “It retains and respects the character and defining features” of the bridge, and addresses structural concerns, while also respecting the need to keep enormous vehicles off narrow, already clogged roads.”
The 4 organizations have rallied public support before. Save Westport Now has been a political party for over 40 years. The Westport Alliance for Saugatuck sparked opposition to the proposed Hamlet development last year. The Greens Farms Association helped broker a land-use agreement when Westport’s first office complex was developed at Nyala Farm, in the 1980s.
This time, they’re galvanizing support through social media, flyers and lawn signs.
The 4 groups’ flyer. A similar one is headlined “Save Greens Farms From Semis!”
The 4 groups say that “adaptive rehabilitation” is not a novel concept. It’s been done before in Connecticut and elsewhere.
When the DOT rehabilitated the East Haddam Swing Bridge over the Connecticut River, they did not raise it, Boyd says. Instead, they created watertight containers for the mechanics.
Adaptive rehabilitation is also consistent with work done on other National
Register bridges in Connecticut, including the 1842 Bull’s Bridge in Kent and the 1864 West Cornwall Bridge in Cornwall.
The Checkered House Bridge, carrying busy Route 2 traffic over the Winooski River in Richmond, Vermont, is another example of adaptive rehabilitation. After completion in 2013, it won an engineering award. Like the Cribari Bridge, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Checkered House Bridge, Richmond, Vermont.
“We’re 4 different groups, but we came together because this is the moment,” says Greens Farms Association president Art Schoeller.
“There was not a lot of debate or discussion. We understand the need to activate people around a simple message. And we all want as many people to show up on Thursday as possible.”
Information on the Cribari Bridge — including a comprehensive history, engineering details and a list of resources — is available on the Westport Preservation Alliance website.
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Save Westport Now offers these details on the the “adaptive rehabilitation” plan. It proposes that:
√ The existing Pratt-through-truss system be widened by splitting the swing spans longitudinally, thus allowing for wider travel lanes and the addition of dedicated bike lane(s) and safer pedestrian walkways.
√ The existing standard-issue guard rail scheme be replaced with a narrow section crash rail system, which is a DOT-compliant retrofit system especially well-suited for use on historic bridges.
√ The new spans be infilled with period appropriate material as necessary.
√ The historic clearance height not be altered in order to shield Saugatuck and the adjoining Bridge Street National Register District from the damaging effects of heavy truck traffic
√ The previously identified pier two support system deficiencies, etc. be addressed, while still ensuring that any reconstructed/replaced elements are consistent with published National Park Service standards for the treatment of historic resources.
√ Any alterations or modifications to the bridge’s present support system be consistent with the current span’s historic scale and nature;
√ All temporary steel cladding be carefully removed from the bridge’s pin-connected through trusses (where vehicle strikes have occurred), and the underlying impact damage repaired as appropriate.
√ After widening and repairing the truss system as detailed above, the entire span be prepped and recoated to match the current color scheme.
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