By John Schwing
WESTPORT — The public can comment this month on regional planners’ recommendation to restore funding for the final phase of design work to replace or rehabilitate the William F. Cribari Memorial Bridge in Saugatuck.
In-person and online meetings, hosted by the South Western Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, will take place next week. And comments can be filed until noon April 1 with that agency’s support group, the Western Connecticut Council of Governments.
Last month, the SWRMPO endorsed $4.1 million sought by the state Department of Transportation for the right-of-way and final design phase for the Cribari bridge’s rehabilitation or replacement in its updated statewide transportation improvement plan, or “TIP.”
The future of the 140-year-old swing bridge — carrying state Route 136, known locally as Bridge Street — over the Saugatuck River has been a flashpoint of controversy for decades.
Most recently, the DOT in 2015 classified the span as “severely deficient” and in need of extensive repairs or perhaps complete replacement. But after several years of debate, then-First Selectman Jim Marpe in 2017 asked regional planners to delete a request for rehab/replacement funds from the DOT until that agency completed an environmental assessment of various options, as well as seeking more local input about issues like traffic impact and the bridge’s historic value.
With completion of that assessment, at a Feb. 15 of WestCOG/SWRMPO, the DOT’s request to restore the design money was endorsed — with the proviso that before a final decision on the Cribari bridge’s future is made, the process would be open to public review and comments as plans evolve.
Read the draft version of the SWRMPO transportation improvement plan for 2025-28 by clicking here.
First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker, who attended the WestCOG/SWRMPO meeting to underscore that point, said the DOT cannot release its environmental survey without the “administrative action” restoring design funds to the TIP.
The first selectwoman also took pains to emphasize the funding will pay only for design options, and not for actual work to repair or replace the bridge.
- An in-person public information meeting on the draft SWRMPO 2025-28 transportation plans, including the Cribari bridge, will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 12, in the Ferguson Library, 1 Public Library Plaza, Stamford.
- An online meeting, via Zoom, is planned at noon Thursday, March 14. The Zoom meeting ID is: 835 3614 6030.
- People planning to speak at either meeting are asked to register in advance, by contacting plan@westcog.org. Speakers should provide their names, as well as the subject they plan to comment on.
- Comments on the Cribari bridge project also can be filed with WestCOG, until noon April 1, by mail at Western Connecticut Council of Governments, 1 Riverside Road, Sandy Hook, CT 06482; by email at plan@westcog.org, or by telephone at 475-323-2071.
The SWRMPO is expected to act on its updated transportation improvement plan at an April 18 meeting.
I don’t know if I have ever read a more Byzantine notice of an opportunity for public input on an extraordinarily important project… what’s going to happen to our National Landmark swing bridge.
We’re invited to go to a public hearing in Stamford at the Ferguson Library to comment on a long list of arcanely numbered projects (none of which is identified as the William F. Cribari Bridge). Or attend by zoom, or write a letter… yada, yada, yada.
Come on Westport politicians, step out from behind the bureaucratic baloney, tell us what’s going on, and hold a meaningful public forum with a theme of honesty and transparency.
What a lot of people would like to have happen is a new bridge with no trucks, shorter lines of traffic and ample sidewalks and bike lanes. I look forward to SWRPA investigating the impact CTDOT’s plans will have on us through the studies First Selectwoman Tooker has initiated.
As a participating member of the Project Action Committee for the William F Cribari Bridge I learned that the bridge is safe and CTDOT, through maintenance, diligently maintains its safety. Thwarted for fifty years of attempts to replace it by activist Westport citizens who understand the threat a larger bridge poses to residential life, CTDOT harbors enough institutional spite so that they don’t do aesthetic repairs. They have publicly stated they will leave the gashes state snowplows have inflicted on the girders of the sturdy old bridge and allow scars of rust to stay.
First Selectwoman Tooker has allowed $4000000 to be added to the Southwest Regional Planning Association/Western Connecticut Council of Government for CTDOT to continue studies (one of which will determine how much property they will take from Westport families and businesses) and design the bridge.
I would endorse the design of a bridge replacement if they could show through these studies that they will make two of the things better.
First—
THE DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT LIMIT OF THE BRIDGE SAVE US FROM TRUCKS
I think SWRPA’s study will confirm that the current traffic situation related to the bridge is bad. We Westporters can see and experience the stop-and-go traffic that is fed by escapees from I-95 every time there is an accident or slow down. We are the ones caught in the half hour traffic jams from Compo Beach to Riverside Avenue. Sometimes Greens Farms Road is backed up to the thruway connector; sometimes, to Exit 19 in Southport. However, so far we are not stuck in traffic with diesel tractor trailer trucks…
I learned as a PAC participant that because CTDOT must use federal funds, CTDOT must build a bridge that can handle any vehicle traveling on I-95.
SWRPA promises to work to “provide people of all ages and abilities timely access to goods, services, recreation, entertainment, and companionship” and to provide reassurance to the public that they are safe.
Can SWRPA’s studies show how a replacement bridge will reduce traffic on Greens Farms Road, Bridge St and the other local residential roads to provide more timely travel times? Can they prove that a CTDOT replacement won’t make our access times worse?
Why build a bridge that makes our traffic worse?
Second—
REPLACING THE BRIDGE INCREASES HEALTH RISKS FOR RESIDENTS.
Air pollution as a health hazard… the I-95 corridor is one of the most heavily polluted in the nation.
The traffic build-up on Greens Farms Road and Bridge already produces unhealthy air conditions… young children of the many newer families in the Bridge Street neighborhood and the elderly who live in The Saugatuck are particularly vulnerable.
SWRPA promises: “The disciplines of planning and public health share common concerns such as transportation planning to encourage physical activity, prevent injuries, improve air quality, and promote wellness. Regional and municipal planners are collaborating with public health partners to create healthier people and places throughout the Region.”
As SWRPA studies the Cribari Bridge it will be important to see their studies show that a replacement bridge causes an decrease in carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides… the exhaust emissions of the diesel engines.
Why undertake a project that makes people sick and shortens life expectancies?
$4000000 for studies and design should be enough to provide the studies that assuring us CTDOT’s plan can accomplish improvement or dissuading us from an ineffectual project that exacerbates an already bad situation.
Regarding the Cribari Bridge, I agree with Mr. Leipolt. This bridge has been maintained throughout the years or it wouldn’t be still there. it was deemed historical, keep it and take care of it. Saugatuck doesn’t need some fancy new bridge to create more traffic. Isn’t there enough in that area already. It has been a part of Saugatuck history and it has served it’s purpose. Put the name of the bridge and a historical plaque on the bridge and keep it going.