By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — On an average day, the Aspetuck River at the northernmost tip of the town appears little more than a small brook.

But after major rainfall, the waterway can be fierce. Over recent decades, surging waters have taken a toll on the aged bridge carrying Bayberry Lane over the river. 

Floodwaters have eroded ground beneath the span, and time and the elements have eaten away at its superstructure, Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich told a Tuesday meeting of several Representative Town Meeting committees.

Ratkiewich spoke during the committees’ Zoom meeting to ask approval of funding to replace the bridge. 

While the project will cost an estimated $2,395,000, Ratkiewich said the federal government will pick up 80 percent of the tab. That leaves Westport paying about $450,000.

Traffic reduced to one lane

The Bayberry Lane bridge is now just one lane. That might sound quaint and “New Englandy,” but the span is bracketed by red stop signs, orange warning signs and is flanked by jersey barriers, which channel traffic over the remaining stable areas of the structure.

“I first heard about this bridge about 20 years ago when the state first starting inspecting it,” Ratkiewich told the joint committee session.

He said that in 2014, when state inspectors were looking at the North Avenue Bridge over the same river, they checked the Bayberry bridge and alerted him about its condition. Ratkiewich was then town engineer. 

“They showed me that it had been undermined from what we call scour. Scour is when there’s too much water going through the opening of the bridge, and has not yet overtopped the bridge,” he said.

“There’s a buildup of water on one side of the bridge and it puts pressure on the water going through the opening,” he said. 

“It caused about a three-foot scour beneath the abutments, and that’s what the inspectors showed me.”

Span monitored as its condition worsened

Ratkiewich said the town had a contractor working nearby on a nearby bridge, and called in the outfit for emergency repairs. 

Ratkiewich said that at that point, state inspectors were checking the bridge every two years.

In 2017, they found deterioration of the beams in the span’s superstructure — two on one side, one on the other.

“The state said you have two choices. You can either bring it down to a one-lane bridge … or you can close the bridge,” Ratkiewich said.

The new span will be longer than the existing, he said, but won’t be higher above the river than it is now. 

RTM members had few questions about the plan, and the Public Works and Finance committees endorsed the project unanimously.