Neighbors Reconnect On Reopened Bridge

Dozens of Fair Haven and Heights residents braved the single-digit cold for a neighborhood-spanning celebration above the Quinnipiac River, as the historic Grand Avenue Bridge — fresh off of a $28 million, on-time-and-under-budget rehab — prepares to reopen for the first time in nearly two years. 

That bridge party took place Saturday afternoon on the roadway and sidewalks of the rebuilt 19th-century bridge that connects Grand Avenue from Front Street in Fair Haven to Quinnipiac Avenue in Fair Haven Heights.

Bundled up in hats, coats, scarves, gloves, and face masks against the below-freezing temperature and blustering riverine winds, neighbors, city officials, and engineering geeks gathered to marvel at the significantly rehabbed structure that has connected the two neighborhoods since 1898. 

After being closed for repairs for roughly 22 months, the bridge is slated to reopen to cars, bikes, pedestrians, and other crossers on Tuesday.

“At the end of the day, we’re connecting communities,” City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said during a brief press conference celebrating the completion of the bridge-repair project. ​“We’re trying to create infrastructure that connects people.”

Which is exactly what the ​“Oregon Dot Green”-painted bridge did on Saturday, cold be damned.

Parents and kids climbed up a steel stairway to get a panoramic view of the river from the redone control house. 

Neighbors stood four and five abreast on the widened promenade-like sidewalk looking to the south towards Quinnipiac River Park and the Annex. 

In the still-closed off middle of the roadway, bomba drummers from Movimiento Cultural, Fair Haven rapper K‑Dub and West Haven-based DJ Prestige warmed up the crowd with music that kept frigid arms and legs moving.

The bridge itself has been closed to through-traffic since March 1, 2020. A bridge-closing party on March 7 of that year was the last major city-hosted public event to take place before the Covid-19 pandemic made landfall in New Haven the following week. Preparations for the major bridge repair stretched back well before then, to an initial study in 2009 and final design authorization in 2016 and the finishing of plans and going out to bid for a contractor in 2019.

Zinn estimated Saturday that the recently completed repairs should have a roughly 30-year lifespan.

New Abutments, Approach Spans, Sidewalks, "Exodermic" Deck

What exactly do those bridge repairs include? Zinn and city Chief Structural Engineer Zachary Shapiro explained, slowly and patiently, to this very-much-not-an-engineer reporter:

• The center-span truss, which was rehabbed in the 1980s, underwent steel repairs, glass cleaning, and repainting.

• The sidewalks are brand new, wider, and made of fiberglass. Zinn said that material weighs much less than concrete, resulting in a lighter center span and ​“less wear and tear” when the bridge has to rotate to make way for ships moving along the Quinnipiac River.

• The bridge deck is also entirely new, and is ​“exodermic” — with steel on the bottom and concrete on top. Zinn said that composite approach also saves quite a bit of weight while allowing the structure to safely ​“flex” under the pressure of a heavy passing vehicle, like a truck.

• All of the bridge’s electrical and mechanical features have been replaced, including new ​“splash-proof motors mounted as high” as the city could place them in the case of flooding.

• The control house — which holds the electrical equipment used to control the rotating of the center span of bridge — has been refurbished, and the controls themselves have been replaced.

• The two approach spans are also brand new, with newly poured abutments on both sides of those spans and new steel holding them up.

“The project went really smoothly, considering the state of the world right now,” Shapiro said. He said the city and the main contractor Mohawk Northeast were able to get ahead of material shortages and most other problems during construction.

Given the hefty and complicated amount of civil, masonry, electrical, and mechanical engineering that went into this project, Zinn said, the project went about as well as it could have. That’s in no small part to Shapiro, a Westville native whom Zinn described as ​“a very patient, understanding guy who wouldn’t panic about anything, knows every detail of this bridge inside and out,” and communicated clearly with surrounding neighbors and city officials and construction contractors throughout.

"This Connects Us"

During the midday festivity itself, visiting neighbors gave similarly high marks to the soon-to-reopen bridge.

Fair Haven Heights residents Albert and Meagan Johnson, walking with their young daughter Aiden, said they regularly crossed the bridge by foot before it closed down for repairs … and are looking to do the same once again now that’s reopening. ​“We’re excited” to walk to the park and along the river, Meagan said.

Fellow Heights residents Geo and Marci Romero, with their young daughter Kristy, said the same.

“It’s going to be really nice,” Geo said. Not least of which because the family will be able to get to Kristy’s school in Fair Haven much more easily now that they don’t have to take the detour down to the Ferry Street bridge.

Pine Street resident and local youth anti-violence activist Manuel Camacho described the reopened bridge as providing ​“a whole new pathway for people to come into and out of Fair Haven.”

As a lifelong Fair Havener, he said, ​“this [bridge] connects us. For canvassing, elections, giveaways, we don’t have to go all the around just to reach the other side.”

Growing up, he said his uncle would often take him to the bridge at sunset and the two would look out over the water, ​“just spend a couple minutes here enjoying the view.” He’s looking forward to doing more of that — on newly widened sidewalks — in the months and years to come.

“This is really exciting,” added Fair Havener Rhys Hall. Living on the edge of the water, ​“you get a great sunset.” Now Fair Haven and Heights residents alike can explore that view — and check out the adjacent neighborhoods — from either side of the water with ease.

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller lives nearby on Clinton Avenue; her ward includes the rehabbed bridge. Miller said that her two kids have many friends on the other side of the water. The reopened bridge will make it much easier for them to connect.

“It’s two neighborhoods that work together,” she said, ​“that have a lot in common, that are now able to be physically more connected. It’s a logistical benefit, but it’s also a community building benefit.”

Fair Haven Heights resident Michael Morand said that he has crossed the bridge on road or by foot probably 10,000 times since moving to the neighborhood in 1995.

While the detour to Ferry Street has encouraged him to explore more of the Chapel Street stretch of Fair Haven during the pandemic, he said, ​“it’s great to have the old familiar back.”

“Grand Avenue, from the Heights through Fair Haven to downtown, is one of the great American streets in terms of its history and diversity,” he said. ​“It will be great to have it back and be a part of it every day.”

Towards the end of Saturday’s press conference, Miller handed the mic over to two New Haven Public Schools students who attend school on either side of the bridge — one at Fair Haven School, one at Jepson.

In English and Spanish, the students read a poem called ​“City of Bridges,” by the poet Francisco X. Alarcón.

Reading the English-language translation, Jepson student Destiny De La Cruz read:

I dreamed
a city
resting

among happy
rolling hills
and streetcars

with houses
that look like
doll houses

and buildings
decorated
like pastry

I dreamed
a city open
to the sea

soaking
her feet
in a bay

friendly
very joyful
and kind

with bridges
ready to
embrace us all

a city
where people
become

bridges
to each
other

Click here, here and here to watch Facebook Live videos from Saturday’s event.