State DOT to hold informational meeting on planned bridge work in Norwich
Norwich — The state Department of Transportation will hold an informational meeting Thursday on a $2.6 million plan to improve three Interstate 395 bridges over three brooks in Norwich in 2020.
The informational meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday in Council Chambers at City Hall.
Temporary lane reductions are planned for all three projects during low volume traffic periods, according to a DOT description of the project.
According to the DOT, all three bridges were built in 1955 as part of the construction of the highway. The first bridge crosses Hammer Brook about 300 feet north of the Exit 14 off-ramp. The second bridge crosses Byron Brook 0.4 miles south of the Lawler Lane crossing over I-395, and the third bridge crosses an unnamed brook 0.2 miles south of the Canterbury Turnpike crossing over the highway.
The DOT plans to install a cast-in-place reinforced concrete lining across the existing culvert in the first bridge with a protective coating to be applied to segments of the pipe not relined, according to the project report.
The work for the second bridge would include placing a 54-inch diameter slip lining into the 72-inch diameter pipe culvert and repairing existing walls.
Permanent access roads and temporary staging areas would be constructed down from each direction on I-395 to allow construction to take place at each end of the bridge culverts.
The proposed work for the third bridge involves replacing the existing 72-inch diameter culvert with a 5-by-5-foot precast concrete box culvert about 35 feet from the existing pipe. The brook would be realigned to go through the new culvert, the project report stated.
Traffic would be reduced to one lane for approximately two days during the replacement project for the third bridge, with lane closures planned for times of low traffic volumes.
Construction is expected to start in the spring of 2020 and be completed by that fall, assuming funding from state and federal sources and environmental permits are in place, the DOT report said.
Plans for the projects are available for public viewing at the DOT engineering department, 2800 Berlin Turnpike, Newington. For information, contact Andrew Cardinali, transportation supervising engineer, at (860) 594-3315.
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