By Ken Valenti
WESTPORT–Westport leaders are taking steps to create a committee to promote the community’s interests in the state-driven project to replace or rehabilitate the William F. Cribari Bridge.
The proposed committee was the topic of a Zoom session held last night by Representative Town Meeting (RTM) districts 1, 4 and 9. While the committee idea arose from the three districts, RTM Moderator Jeff Wieser and town Selectman Don O’Day said it should be appointed by First Selectman Kevin Christie, and could include RTM members.
Christie, who also joined the meeting, said “preliminarily, yes,” to the idea, but added that he needed to consult with others on the idea.
The committee’s purpose would be to present a stronger position to the state on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) plan for the historic swing bridge that carries Connecticut Route 136 – Bridge Street – over the Saugatuck River.
“Without having that voice, we’re going to get run over,” said RTM member Chris Tait, D1.
Plans to resolve the bridge’s “structural and functional deficiencies” moved forward last week when the DOT released an environmental assessment of the project options. The documents noted that replacing the plan was the preferred plan, despite opposition to the idea from many in town.
Some residents believe the state has already decided to remove the existing bridge, a notion fed by the DOT’s recent call for engineering firms interested in working on the project and for anyone interested in obtaining the existing bridge for use elsewhere, should the replacement option be chosen. DOT spokesman Josh Morgan repeated in an email yesterday that no decision has been made.
The DOT is collecting public comments on the matter through April 17. DOT Deputy Commissioner Laoise King said last week that the agency is “committed to a transparent process that values public input.”
The RTM is considering discussing the committee at a March 3 meeting, less than two weeks before a March 19 hearing on the project that the DOT has scheduled in Westport Town Hall. Tait said that, while the committee will not likely be established for in time for the hearing, “there needs to be a statement that can be (made) on the 19th of what we’re doing and what we’re putting together.”
RTM member Kristin Mott Purcell stressed that the community needs to look beyond the hearing and take a multi-pronged approach in making Westport’s position known, locally and in Hartford, even approaching Governor Ned Lamont.
“This needs to be a broader campaign that goes well beyond just the next meeting,” she said. “And we need to think strategically about putting a team in place that includes not just RTM members and excellent expert advice that we had on the call tonight, but also advocates and lobbyists.”
State Representative Jonathan Steinberg joined the meeting briefly and, when asked, said he would try to set up a meeting with the new committee and the DOT.
“I think I could arrange that,” he said.
The bridge’s future generates great interest in Westport. An hour into the three-hour Zoom meeting, 135 people had joined. A Change.org petition to save the bridge by requesting federal oversight of the project had garnered more than 1,200 signatures by late last night.
“We have to keep the heat on this subject because the state thinks that we’re just going to lie down and just take it,” RTM member Andrew Colabella, D4. “We have to keep on this.”
Ken Valenti
A career journalist and lifelong resident of the New York City region, Ken Valenti has enjoyed decades of reporting local, regional and national news in New York and Connecticut. Topics of special interest are development, the environment, Long Island Sound and transportation. When not reporting, he’s always on the lookout for the perfect coffee shop or used book sale.
Why not move the existing bridge upriver south of the island in the shallow, non-navigable section and use it as the nucleus of a world class pedestrian river path?
Mr. Weiss, I couldn’t agree more with attempting to move the existing bridge structure up river and making it walking bridge.
As for the RTM being part of any committee on dealing with the DOT, this would only create more meetings and drag out the process even more. It’s time for action not ZOOM meetings.
Our First Selectman is the man in charge, not the RTM. First Selectman Christie should be taking the lead, get an open meeting on the books in the auditorium with our State Representatives, let them have 10 minutes each and then open it to the public to ask questions and get real answers.
As residents RTM members like myself, and RTM as a whole has zero voting power on anything to do with the Cribari Bridge. Our job is to show up, speak up, and support our residents, and the best interests of the taxpayers of Westport.
It was nice to have a venting Zoom meeting this past week. Now it’s time for our elected state officials who are elected to represent Westport and do have the “juice” with the DOT to move this issue forward towards a solution.
The RTM may not have formal voting power over CTDOT, but it absolutely has institutional authority, public legitimacy, and political influence. When the RTM engages collectively, it signals that this is not a small group of residents — it is the elected voice of Westport.
Leaving the matter solely to the First Selectman narrows the town’s leverage. A formal RTM resolution, working group, or structured engagement with CTDOT elevates the issue from “public comment” to “municipal position,” which state agencies and legislators cannot easily dismiss.
Engagement does not delay action — it strengthens it. Clear, unified municipal direction gives our state delegation leverage when they press CTDOT. Without that, Westport speaks in fragments.
If the bridge will shape this town for the next 75 years, then the RTM — the town’s representative body — should be visibly and formally involved.