Old Lyme ― Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner told a crowd of people gathered at a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday that “it’s really time” to replace the Connecticut River Bridge, which was built in 1907 between Old Lyme and Old Saybrook.

Now, a project is doing just that.

Federal, state and local officials gathered at Ferry Landing State Park to celebrate the start of a $1.3 billion project to build a replacement bridge, which they said was years in the making.

The railroad bridge is the oldest movable bridge between Boston and New Haven, and it sometimes does not open and close as it should, Gardner said.

He said the new railroad bridge will be better in every way: resilient, reliable, modern and designed with a taller, 24-foot span above the water so it will need to open less often for boats passing underneath and be prepared for higher water levels.

Amtrak will be able to increase train speeds on the new bridge from the current 45 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour, added Gardner.

The bridge carries more than 50 Amtrak trains, Shore Line East commuter rail trains and freight trains each day, according to Amtrak.

Polly Trottenberg, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said she has celebrated a few infrastructure projects up and down Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, and it never ceases to amaze her the hundreds of thousands of people they serve, the important economic role they play, and how the infrastructure needs renewing.

She said this project will build a better, safer bridge where trains can go faster.

“This bridge has been cranky and creaky for a long time,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “It has been a great bridge. It was a masterpiece in its time, but its time has passed, and we now recognize that resilience and reliability require that it be essentially just completely rebuilt.”

He said the new bridge, which is important to the whole rail system, will be the same kind of masterpiece as the original bridge, calling it “a key to commerce, commuting and culture” in the rail-dependent state. It also will be key to curtailing emissions from cars.

He pointed out that the northeast’s transportation system is older, so the region needs to rebuild its infrastructure faster than the rest of the country.

Jason Hoover, assistant vice president of major bridge programming at Amtrak, said in an interview that the new bascule-span bridge is expected to be completed in 2031. The project also will entail replacing and moving the nearby fishing pier further out to the river.

He said the contractors, Tutor Perini Corp. and O&G Industries, are ready to begin the work, and environmental work on the project already started last month.

He said the project will make the corridor more reliable and faster.

“This is a really good example of how the bipartisan infrastructure bill is helping us transform our network to get us to double ridership by 2040,” Hoover said.

Amtrak said in a news release that the project received $826.64 million from the Federal Railroad Administration due to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the state and Amtrak are contributing the rest.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during the ceremony that it was never a foregone conclusion that there would be resources to do this project. He said the project is moving forward after decades of talk because of the commitment of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with elected officials in Congress, to the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He also credited the northeast delegation for advocating that $30 billion of $66 billion reserved for rail infrastructure upgrades go to improvements to the Northeast Corridor.

But citing a backlog in needed infrastructure improvements, Murphy said the bridge project can’t be the end. He said there will need to be more investment in the future.

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said that as far back as 2006, an engineer had found the bridge was structurally deficient and repair work was no longer capable of keeping it functional.

“It is just so exciting to finally see this come to fruition,” Courtney said of the project.

Courtney also said he helped secure a commitment from Amtrak for a project labor agreement, which guarantees local workers will be part of this project and there will be job training and fair wages.

“This is an exciting day for us,” said Nate Brown, vice president of the Connecticut State Building Trades.

Gardner said 150 workers will be on site on average, with a peak of up to 300 workers.

Gov. Ned Lamont said the project has a special meaning to him after the state lost a number of bridges during the recent flooding in the Naugatuck Valley. Those bridges have to be rebuilt with extra structural support, extra culverts and ways to reroute water.

He also said that while discussing the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore which was struck by a ship in March, Trottenberg told him that boats are now bigger than before.

Lamont said the new bridge between Old Lyme and Old Saybrook will be taller to accommodate larger boats and rising waters.

He noted that the new bridge will be another “100-year bridge.”

k.drelich@theday.com