Pedestrian Footbridge Replacement Gets Thumbs-Up

It may not match the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, but it ​“looks pretty decent.”

So concluded the chair of the city’s Board of Park Commissioners, as he and his colleagues voted to approve the city’s plans for replacing Edgewood Park’s ​“Mid Bridge.”

That’s the roughly 48-foot-long footbridge that the city plans to knock down and replace in Edgewood Park. 

During Wednesday night’s latest monthly online meeting of the Board of Park Commissioners, Chair David Belowsky pushed for a replacement bridge with a bit more aesthetic flare, with the Pearl Harbor Memorial ​“Q” Bridge as his reference point. By the end of the meeting, he wound up joining all of his commission colleagues in voting support of the city’s plans to put up a new steel truss structure that should should hold up just fine in holding up westside walkers. The design next goes to the City Plan Commission for review.

Zinn presented the latest bridge-replacement plans to several dozen New Haveners in attendance at Wednesday’s Zoom-streamed meeting. 

“The Mid Bridge is about halfway down the park. It goes from the main park road across the West River to the trail system on the west side,” Zinn explained.

That footbridge is nearing the end of its useful life. Replacing it is one of the city’s top priorities for how to spend roughly $200,000 out of $800,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds already earmarked for Edgewood Park capital improvements.

“We want to make sure that we get the bridge replaced before it corrodes and fails to an extent where we have to [close] it for safety concerns,” Zinn said. ​“Right now, it is still usable. And we want to make sure we have a new bridge in before it is not usable.”

Zinn said that the city plans to demolish the existing bridge and the existing center pier. The city plans to remove the current bridge’s superstructure, and replace the ​“apron” leading to the bridge.

“The new bridge will sit on new pre-cast abutments that are behind the existing abutment,” Zinn said. The new bridge will be ​“slightly longer” and roughly six inches higher than the current one. The replacement foodbridge will also ​“span from one side to the other in one shot,” eliminating the need for a ​“central span.”

The city is ​“hoping there will be minimal impacts to trees,” Zinn continued. ​“At this point, we’re not anticipating the wholesale cutting down of a tree” as part of this footbridge replacement project.

All of this bridge replacement work will require permits from the city, Zinn said. He said his office has already submitted an application to the City Plan Commission in anticipation of having a hearing on the item next month.

“We anticipate the project to cost around $200,000, possibly $250,000,” he said. ​“We’d like to get out to bid as soon as possible to get a contract.” Usually the lead time on bridge structures like this is ​“several months,” he said. Hopefully, he added, the new bridge will be in place in the ​“later part of the year.”

So, commission Chair Belowsky asked Zinn, ​“What’s the story with this bridge? Is it gonna look like the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge?” That’s the formal name for the Q Bridge, which carries cars across the Quinnipiac River from Long Wharf to the Annex.

“It is not going to look like the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge,” Zinn replied with a smile.

“Can we make it look that way?” Belowsky asked.

“Not terribly easily, no,” said Zinn.

This is a ​“truss bridge,” Zinn said. Similar to what the city has installed in recent years by Winslow Augustine park and in the ​“West River open space.”

“We can’t be more creative?” Belowsky asked.

“The truss is the most efficient way of spanning this sort of distance with the loads that we see,” Zinn said about the Mid Bridge. ​“The Q Bridge is obviously a very peculiar type of bridge,” with elements of both a ​“beam bridge” and a ​“cable-stayed bridge.”

“Unfortunately, those are not something typically done in this sort of span and weight class,” Zinn said.

A lot of people go to this park, Belowsky continued. A lot of people are going to be walking over this bridge. ​“Can’t we make it to look a little different and a little better?” He recalled crossing a bridge in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina that was a few miles long and that was ​“gorgeous.” How long is the Mid Bridge? he asked.

Forty-eight feet, Zinn said.

Isn’t there a way to build something that will stand for a long time and that will ​“be aesthetically beautiful?” Belowsky continued. Asked by Zinn what kind of bridge style he’d like to see at this site, Belowsky said, ​“I would like a style that the people of New Haven would like to see. Something different.”

Zinn agreed. ​“We don’t want something that distracts and detracts from the natural beauty that we see there,” he said. ​“Bridges are beautiful. We wouldn’t want to have an ugly bridge, for sure.”

But this bridge, even if it doesn’t look like the Q Bridge, should still be a pleasant sight to see.

It will have a weathering steel truss ​“with a bit of an arch to it.”

He then showed the commissioners and the public a photo of what a current truss bridge looks like, to give them a sense of what the replacement might be.

“That looks pretty decent,” Belowsky said.

Appraising the bridge pic, Zinn said he finds that design ​“fairly handsome.”

Belowsky agreed. ​“That looks pretty handsome.”

What would be the cost of changing the looks of the bridge? Parks Commission Vice-Chair Carl Babb asked.

“These are pre-engineered bridges,” Zinn said. ​“If you wanted to go to a custom-designed bridge, you’re probably between four to 40 times the cost” of what the city is currently expecting to pay. 

Towards the end of the meeting, the parks commission voted unanimously in support of Zinn’s bridge replacement proposal, which now heads to the City Plan Commission for further review and a final vote.