Allan Appel Photo
Keep it iconic and historic. Make the lights moody, the siren musical, and the approach traffic calmed, bike-laned, striped. Give us a regular newsletter so residents know exactly what’s going on and maybe even take steps to get rid of unthoughtful fishermen. Oh, and explore ways to indemnify businesses if they lose too many customers in the process.
Those were a few suggestions heaped on City Engineer Dick Miller as the Board of Aldermen’s City Services and Environmental Policy subcommittee meeting Tuesday night unanimously approved the city’s submission of a $1.7 million grant request to begin the design phase of the rehab of the Grand Avenue Bridge. The measure goes to the full board with a favorable recommendation for the Oct. 3 meeting.
The construction work’s not going to begin immediately. If all goes well, design will be completed by the end of 2013, with construction taking place in 2014 and 2015. All told, the project is to cost about $25 million, with the city and state each covering 10 percent of the cost, the federal government the rest.
Built in 1898 and partially rehabbed in the 1980s, the iconic Fair Haven bridge is in need of immediate serious TLC lest it fail catastrophically and plunge the neighborhood into dilemmas similar to those caused by the sudden closing for six long years of the Ferry Street Bridge.
That anxiety — and therefore the desire to proceed rapidly to a full and detailed design — pervaded Tuesday night’s meeting, even as Miller reiterated, “We’re dedicated to preserving that iconic feature.”
(l-r) City Engineer Dick Miller & Chief Structural Engineer Gholamali Moslehi.
Click here for a full description of the mechanical and electrical scope of work to come as described by Dick Miller at the first public meeting on the bridge rehab back on May 17. At that time, Miller committed to community wishes to preserve the historic look of the bridge. However, but both he and city Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts were reluctant to include traffic-calming measures on the approach to the bridge, especially on the Front and Grand side, as part of the scope.
Click here for those concerns reiterated by Justin Elicker at a City Plan meeting on May 18.
Elicker, the chair of the aldermanic committee, Tuesday night pressed Miller to interpret the language of the grant to include as much traffic-calming as possible. That is, to think of the bridge repair and redesign in the context of the larger neighborhood.
“We’ll address the community’s concerns,” said Miller.
He suggested, however, that it might mean revisiting the signalization and the size of lanes on the Grand and Front western approach separate from or as a prelude to redesign. “The Grand/Front intersection we can address before construction,” he said.
Community activist Chris Ozyck appealed to the committee to include in its marching orders to Miller improvements that appeal to the five senses. Not sufficiently talked about, said Ozyck, are the sound of the bridge siren as well as texture changes on the decking of the bridge that can provide a kind of vehicular music even as it calms the traffic.
He added “mood lighting” as well — perhaps a wire barrier to discourage fishing that often leads to odor complaints by residents.
At Westville Alderman Greg Dildine’s suggestion, Ozyck urged that the grant scope include regularizing sidewalks that dovetail with the nearly completed new sidewalks on Quinnipiac Avenue in order to help create a kind of bridge-to-bridge walking loop, unique to the area.
Ozyck expressed the hope that when the city contracts for the work it “make sure the firm is also sensing these soft needs [in addition to the mechanical and electrical improvements]. These things make or break a neighborhood.”
Miller recommitted to bringing issues like lights, paint color, and fencing before the Historic District Commission, although he said, “In matters of right of way, the HDC is advisory only.”
He also cautioned that people could get excited, for example, and say, “‘Let’s do bricks on the bridge.’ I can’t say it’ll work.” Issues of weight and balance take precedence over aesthetics, he said.
Miller called fishing an enforcement issue.
(l-r) Committee members Sergio Rodriguez, Justin Elicker, Greg Dildine.
Westville Alderman Sergio Rodriguez echoed Ozyck, Chatham Square Neighborhood Association’s Lee Cruz, and two successful candidates in Sept. 14 Fair Haven aldermanic primaries, Brenda Jones Barnes and Gabe Santiago, who testified that businesses along the bridge in particular be involved in the process.
Rodriguez went a step further, citing lessons learned along Whalley Avenue in his district that suffered serious losses during the years of the Whalley Avenue “re-do.”
“The Athenian Diner lost $100,000 in business. They [customers] couldn’t get in due to Jersey barriers,” he said.
He suggested to Miller that as part of the grant, “Maybe we can appeal to [U.S. Rep.] Rosa [DeLauro] and indemnify federally” — that is, provide some protection to Grand Avenue Bridge area businesses that might face similar financial pressure.
On that score, Miller said he is deeply sympathetic, but whether the cost is reimbursable is outside his area of technical expertise.
The committee members voted a unanimous recommendation to the full board to approve the grant submission. They also voted to include a letter accompanying the resolution. The letter, to be written by Elicker, will restate the city engineer’s commitment to go to the HDC for design review; include as much traffic calming as possible in the redesign; and explore relief for businesses adversely affected.
Fair Haven Heights Alderwoman Maureen O’Sullivan-Best requested that the letter also urge that a regular bridge repair update include consequences for school and transit bus route changes, and that all stakeholders both above and below Route 80 be informed.
“There needs to be a true effort to communicate to the greater area so [for example] Conn DOT [the state Department of Transportation] knows in enough time to redo their [bus] routes,” she said.
Signs, Trolley System Grant Submission OK’d
Deputy Director of Economic Development Mike Piscitelli.
The committee members Tuesday night also unanimously voted to recommend approval of two more federal grant requests: $670,00,000 for further development of a new citywide signage system for drivers as well as pedestrians; and $800,000 to pay for the next phase of a “starter alignment” or a downtown route of a proposed streetcar system. The trolley car’s proposal’s next phase requires a $200,000 city or state match.
Click here for a discussion of those proposals at the August City Plan meeting.
If the city receives the $670,000 in federal money for the “way-finding system,” the city’s match will be about $180,000. Responding to an inquiry from Westville Alderman Dildine, Deputy Director of Economic Development Mike Piscitelli said that since major attractions and employers in the city will benefit from the new signage, it is possible “we’d look for partners, like hospitals.”
That is, the “partners” might have their names as sponsors on the proposed signage. Piscitelli said that idea is still in its early stages and “all options are on the table.”
I worked on the quinnipiac Re Do and I do hope the city listens to our concerns regarding the Grand Ave.Bridge. I have noticed many problems with the redo,flooding near Grand vin during rain. Lack of space when two vehicles are approaching each other. And I want to know how are they going to plow the areas near Quinnipiac and Clifton where there are medians that are dangerous,where are they going to put the snow. How are they going to plow down near the old Benjamin Jepson school,the car can
t even make all those turns and angles down there.
I have already seen numerous tire blow outs due to the closeness of the lanes.