Community Corner

Prepare for More Bridge Work on Route 74

The state Department of Transportation will begin work on the Route 74 overpass in early 2012.

For the foreseeable future, commuters and residents who use the 1-mile stretch of Route 74 near the interstate overpass will have to contend with bridge reconstruction.

Over the next few years the state Department of Transportation will be working on at least one of the three bridges between the Track Nine Diner in Willington to just south of the state police barracks on Tolland Stage Road in Tolland.

Monday night, April 18, about a dozen local and state officials gathered in the council chambers at the Hicks Memorial Municipal Center to talk about the project that is next on the list: the rehabilitation of the 1952 bridge that spans Interstate 84.

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The two-phase, $1 million to $2 million state funded project is slated to begin in the spring of 2012 with a completion date of summer 2014.

The first part of the project will be focused on the deck section and will require one of the two travel lanes to be blocked for the entire construction season, from about April 1 through Nov. 1, according to Project Engineer Andrew J. Cardinali.

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The second phase of the project will be focused on the undercarriage of the 210-foot long bridge, where small pieces of concrete are coming lose, posing a threat to the traveling public along Interstate 84, according to State Bridge Design Principal Engineer Joseph C. Cancelliere.

The state inspects bridges every two years, DOT officials said. Cancelliere said the current structure is not at risk of collapse, but years of travel upon the deck and use of salt during the winter months has causing some erosion in the concrete and steel below. Cancelliere said this is nothing alarming, but something that happens to most New England bridges through the course of their lives.

Although the bridge over the interstate is a straight forward job, according to DOT officials, State Rep. Brian Hurlburt, D-Tolland, asked that they coordinate the work with that of the anticipated complete overhaul of the span across the Willimantic River located less than a one-half of one mile away in Willington.

Hurlburt said although to DOT officials each project has a separate time frame, to the residents of the area the back-to-back projects mean having to contend with bridge construction and traffic delays for more than five or six consecutive years.

Cancelliere said that although he is not familiar with the work on the Willington bridge, he expects that it could be delayed because of the amount of environmental permitting and other necessary requirements involved.

“Our project is about as clean as you can get… we’re confident that we’ll be done on schedule,” Cancelliere said of the overpass rehabilitation.

Resident Richard Tapp asked whether this next project would interfere with the current project, known as the grapevine bridge, underway near the state police barracks. DOT officials said they anticipate that project being completed this year.

Resident Karen Kramer asked about the requirement for the 6-foot high safety fence to be constructed on either side of the rehabilitated bridge over the highway. Cardinali said it is typical during modern bridge construction to install such a fence so that items cannot be thrown from the bridge onto the highway below.

The DOT expects to put the project out to bid this fall.

For more information, or to submit questions or concerns about the job, contact Cancelliere at Joseph.Cancelliere@ct.gov or Cardinali at Andrew.Cardinali@ct.gov.


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