Waterford develops plan for three-month closure of Jordan Cove Road
Waterford — A plan to rebuild the bridge over Jordan Cove also includes an evacuation plan for the people who live in the Millstone Point area of town and a new route for school buses.
The replacement of the bridge will take three months and is scheduled to begin Aug. 21. While it’s under construction, Jordan Cove Road — the primary exit route out of two small Millstone Point neighborhoods in the southernmost part of Waterford — will be closed, First Selectman Daniel Steward said.
During the three-month construction process, residents will need to use Gardiners Wood Road, which runs north to Rope Ferry Road from Jordan Cove Road, to enter and leave the neighborhood and reach I-95.
Town officials developed the plan — to be implemented in case of a flooding emergency in Millstone Point — in conjunction with the police, Dominion Energy and school district officials.
Because Gardiners Wood Road occasionally floods during heavy rainstorms, Steward said, the town also has worked with Dominion Energy to develop a second alternate route out of Millstone Point through roads on the Millstone Power Station property.
Town officials approved a $1.5 million appropriation to pay for the replacement of the bridge, which is more than 80 years old, this winter. Town officials approved the capital expenditure for repairs to the bridge in 2015.
A state grant through the Small Town Economic Assistance Program will cover 80 percent of the estimated $1.5 million construction cost.
A state Department of Transportation study found the Jordan Cove Road bridge to be in poor condition in 2006. The planned repairs include replacing the bridge’s superstructure, or the upper part of the bridge, repairing the wing walls and abutments, and replacing and repaving the roadway.
Massachusetts-based New England Infrastructure won the bid to reconstruct the bridge, Steward said.
And original start date in April was delayed because of unexpected scheduling issues while Frontier Communications and Eversource did work to prepare the utility infrastructure for the construction, the first selectman said.
Because the delay means the bridge replacement will extend into the beginning of the school year, he said, school buses also will need to adjust their routes to use Gardiners Wood Road instead of Jordan Cove Road.
In a letter sent to about 100 homes located off Jordan Cove Road, Steward added that a railroad bridge with an 11-foot, 6-inch clearance over Gardiners Wood Road will restrict access to moving trucks and some other large vehicles.
Town and emergency vehicles still will be able to get through, he said.
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