State and local officials have criticized the State Department of Transportation for “thinking too small” with its $32.8 million plan to rehabilitate the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge.

They made the comments at a public meeting Tuesday in Montville, during which the DOT unveiled the plan.

The bridge, built in 1967, is a two-lane, steel girder bridge that spans the Thames River. It connects Montville and Preston via Route 2A. According to the DOT, about 22,000 vehicles drive over the bridge each day. Repairs were made in 1985, 1996 and 2010.

After evaluating the bridge’s individual components and finding many of them in poor condition, the DOT is now looking to rehabilitate the bridge and increase its life span by 20 years.

Some of the work involves repairing the steel structure, along with replacing the road and a deteriorated fender system that protects the span from a boat collision. The bridge would also be cleaned, painted and sealed, and the concrete substructure and fencing would be repaired. The project will result in temporary lane shifts and shoulder closures during off-peak hours.

The DOT is currently designing the project. That phase is scheduled to end in July of 2027 with construction scheduled to begin the following spring.

“Thinking too small”

In a question and answer portion of the meeting that followed the DOT presentation, officials and some residents said the scope of the project should be expanded to accommodate projected traffic increases in the region.

“This doesn’t make sense to me to think small on something that is going to last for 20 years,” said State Sen. Cathy Osten (D-Sprague). “Because once you do this, you would not essentially be looking at this bridge for another 20 years.”

Osten pointed out future developments such as the Great Wolf Lodge at Foxwoods Resort Casino and the Preston Riverwalk project, both of which she said would substantially increase bridge traffic.

Osten and others urged the DOT to consider widening the bridge to four lanes, and adding biking and walking lanes.

“To the senator’s point, in my experience being involved in the town for over 50 years and the police department, it doesn’t take much to tie that bridge up,” Montville Mayor Leonard Bunnell said. “It can be a simple flat tire, because it’s so narrow.”

Bunnell said that with increased residential and other development in Montville and surrounding towns and tribal nations, he wants the DOT to further examine traffic projections for the bridge.

Just this month, his town’s land use department received applications for two apartment projects that would provide a combined 257 apartment units.

“Montville is ready to provide the housing,” he said. “And that housing is going to add more volume to that bridge.”

James Barrows, the DOT’s supervising engineer for the project, said the DOT did look at other options, but the current proposal is the cheapest at $32.8 million. Barrows said about half of that is for the fender system replacement.

Superstructure replacement, which would allow for the deck widening, would increase the cost to about $206 million. Replacing the bridge would cost about $227 million.

“So that was one of the reasons why we had stuck with the original scope of doing the original preservation work,” Barrows said. “And then we would reevaluate in a couple of years, once the bridge gets close to the end of the service life, coming back and actually doing the replacement.”

People can comment on the project, known as Project No. 0085-0147, and ask questions by Dec. 3 by emailing DOTProject0085-0147@ct.gov or calling (860) 594-2020. People submitting comments by email or phone are asked to reference state project 0085-0147.

More information on the project is available at https://portal.ct.gov/dotmontville0085-0147?language=en_US.

d.drainville@theday.com