Mountain Road was finally reopened to through traffic Wednesday. “We’re ending the season on a high note,” said First Selectman Henry Tirrell.
The road was blocked off for months between Route 272 and Westside Road while a culvert was replaced and traffic was detoured around it. It was the second culvert on the road to be replaced since 1922 and a third remains to be addressed.
Tirrell said he has not heard from the Army Corps of Engineers or DEEP about his request to make an emergency repair to the third bridge so he can keep it open this winter. “We are trying to come up with a plan to keep it open, perhaps by paving over the plates,” he said.
The culvert under the road collapsed last summer and has been covered by steel plates since then. Tirrell said plows would catch the edge of the plates during winter road maintenance if no adjustments are made.
In other bridge business, nine bids—ranging from $5.3 million to $8 million—were opened this week for the replacement of two South Norfolk bridges washed out in flash floods in 2023. DOT engineers will go through the bids to ensure that everything meets specifications and, if they do, assign the contract to Dayton Construction, the low bidder.
Work on the first of the two bridges is expected to start next April.
Finally, state DOT crews are doing finish work under the road next to the massive wall project on Route 44 west of the village center. “They will do the finish work on one side and pave it, and then go to the other side, do the work there and pave it,” Tirrell reported. “They hope to have both lanes open by mid-December.”