Update: This article was revised to include comments e-mailed early Thursday from First Selectman Kevin Christie.
By Andy Brophy
WESTPORT–A new bridge on Jesup Road, to replace the bridge severely damaged in Sept. 13’s flash flood, may not be built for at least a year, but that shouldn’t have an impact on police response times.
Police Lt. Anthony Prezioso, a Police Department spokesman, said officers on patrol don’t respond to calls from the Police Department on Jesup Road, though Westport Emergency Medical Services and Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service, which work together and are both dispatched from the Police Department’s property, may experience a slight delay by not being able to traverse the Jesup Road bridge.
Prezioso said he wasn’t aware of any plans to relocate the emergency medical service organizations, which respond to 2,400 calls a year, to another site until the new Jesup Road bridge opens.
First Selectman Kevin Christie, in an e-mail sent early Thursday, said “EMS Chief Patrick Riddle conducted test routes under emergency conditions and found that the bridge closure does not significantly affect EMS response times.”
“For calls on Imperial Avenue south of the closed bridge, the alternate route adds approximately 30 seconds to, at most, one minute. For calls south of Jesup Road but east of Imperial Avenue, the testing found no discernible difference in response time,” Christie’s e-mail says.
“Police officers and firefighters are also first responders and will typically arrive at an emergency before the ambulance,” he added.
Larry Roberts, director of the town’s Department of Public Works, said the bridge was too damaged to repair and had to be replaced. He estimated a new bridge wouldn’t open for 12 to 18 months.
“That is just an estimate right now,” Roberts said. “We’re expediting the process, but we still have to go through the permitting process.”
Roberts said he’s hopeful construction of the new bridge would be fully financed by state and federal grants, though the town may have to pay the cost of designing the new bridge.
Roberts said late last week that the damaged bridge may be demolished in the near future to ensure no one attempts to traverse it. “The bridge is so compromised … we’re thinking of removing it in advance. It’s really in very poor shape right now,” he said.
Prezioso said Monday that concrete barriers, known as Jersey barriers, have been set up to block anyone from trying to cross the bridge.
The new bridge may be larger and wider because the existing bridge was undersized for the storms that Westport experiences, Roberts said.
Gail Coykendall, a member of the Representative Town Meeting’s Public Works Committee, said last week that she’s concerned about the bridge closure’s impact on emergency medical responders and traffic and would like representatives from the Police and Public Works Department to meet with RTM members. She said she’d like to hear the necessity and feasibility of a new location for Westport’s emergency medical service providers.
Peter Gold, also a member of the RTM’s Public Works Committee, said he didn’t think police response times would be delayed because patrol officers are on the road during their shifts. He said he saw more of a potential impact on traffic and ways residents access downtown locations.
Gold questioned whether Taylor Place, which is opposite Main Street and one way toward the Post Road, was wide enough to become two ways. He said people may park in a lot on Imperial Avenue and walk to Westport Library.
“Yes, it will be an inconvenience and a nuisance for some people,” Gold said of the long-term bridge closure. “Hopefully they’ll fix the bridge quickly. I think [motorists] will find shortcuts.”
While police officers on patrol respond to calls, if additional resources are needed that are stationed at the Police Department, the bridge closure would impact their response times, Roberts said.
Roberts said the bridge was severely damaged by the volume of water in the Sept. 13 storm, which totaled seven inches in three hours and which went up and over the bridge. He said rocks and dirt that partly comprised the bridge had been “torn away” by the flash flood.
Andy Brophy
Andy Brophy is an experienced Fairfield County journalist. Andy was a staff writer at The Connecticut Post for 10 years. He also wrote for the Norwalk Hour, Fairfield Minuteman, Fairfield Patch and weekly newspapers in Westport, Fairfield and Norwalk. When not reporting, Andy enjoys playing chess and listening to pianist Art Tatum. .
At this point, ‘did not respond to a request for comment’ is starting to sound like an official Town policy.
Once again “ no comment from the first selectman “ but I’m positive he will make a statement at The Slice of Saugatuck this weekend while he smiles for the cameras with a slice of pizza in his hands,,, crickets
This should be considered a test case; Gail’s concerns, along with those of others, are valid. Imagine the consequences if more critical bridges were impacted by extreme weather—seven inches of rain in three hours! Wow!! unfortunately this is becoming increasingly common, with so-called 100-year storms occurring almost annually. I wonder what the elevation of the new bridge will be—raising it seems prudent. A two-year timeline until opening may be more realistic. We should not underestimate the challenges posed by aging infrastructure. With hundreds of new rentals expected in the next three years, it is becoming clear that improved bridges, intersections, and sidewalks are of primary importance.
This is an ideal opportunity for the Administration to demonstrate responsiveness.
The reconstruction of this old bridge is clearly an urgent priority. The design and permitting process should be already in progress and an expedited process timeline already done and published so that all the relevant parties know their schedule objectives. Design and permitting are processes that can be truncated while quality is maintained. The financing and approval processes can absolutely be tasked to eliminate all unnecessary wasted meeting scheduling time.
Quality need not and should not be sacrificed, but the process will not be shortened unless there is a real timing plan in place and communicated.
This is a challenge that our administration must embrace. This bridge project is key to the Town’s ability demonstrate it can respond to an important adverse event.
Timely decisions are essential. Let’s see THE PLAN so that all contributing parties know their precise expectations and be held accountable.
One year to complete is not acceptable and any barriers to faster progress need to be exposed.
The completion time cannot be over a year, how about a target of 6 months . . .
“This is an ideal opportunity for the Administration to demonstrate responsiveness.”
Agreed. Start by appointing a DPIC chair after nearly 10 months, filling the vacancies across our boards and commissions, and responding to residents who volunteer to serve but hear nothing.
Responsiveness starts with responding.
The failure of the Jesup Road bridge certainly underscores the need to take extreme rainfall and infrastructure resilience seriously. But I think we should be cautious about drawing conclusions from it about other Westport bridges.
Jesup is a small crossing over Deadman Brook that was overtopped by an extraordinary volume of rapidly moving stormwater. The Cribari Bridge is a very different structure, in a very different hydraulic setting, with its own well\-documented structural, environmental and traffic issues.
What happened at Jesup is a good reason to examine each of our bridges carefully for the conditions it actually faces\. It is not, by itself, an argument for any particular solution at Cribari.
With tides exceeding eight feet, along with strong northeast winds and heavy rainfall, there is a risk that the electrical motors could be flooded or damaged? Even more concerning… large debris, such as a tree or broken dock, collide with the span if it cannot pass underneath? this could be the “find out” part.
Thanks to Robbie Guimond for commenting on the frequency and consequences of severe storms and flooding, (though I hope the reconstruction doesn’t take two years). Here is information from increasingly CIRCA (circa.uconn.edu):
Rising sea levels, intensifying storms, and increasing flood risks are creating unprecedented challenges for coastal communities across the northeastern United States. In this region in particular, the magnitude of projected sea level rise is among the largest of any in the world threatening millions of Americans and billions of dollars in infrastructure
And FYI – The Board of Finance agenda for October 7 includes the following item:
Upon the request of the Director of Public Works, to approve an appropriation in the amount of $172,500 along with bond and note authorization to the Municipal Improvement Fund Account 30503310-500495-13014 for the Design Cost and Permitting of Jesup Road Bridge Replacement.
Somehow Governor Shapiro was able to repair and reopen the bridge in PA on I-95 in less than 2 weeks….https://montco.today/2023/07/josh-shapiro-i-95-what-we-learned/