Bridge Repairs move one slow step at a time

By Matt Riiska

The recent flooding in southern Litchfield County and northern Fairfield County was a reminder of how volatile mother nature can be. I feel sorry for the residents in that area. Seeing the news clips and talking to the agencies assisting in the cleanup makes it clear how long and expensive their cleanup and rebuilding will be. It is also a reminder of all the calamities the Town of Norfolk has gone through in the past two years. As bad as the events that we have endured in Norfolk, the most important thing to remember ourselves is that no one in Norfolk was hurt or lost their life.

Just a year ago, we went through a comparable situation, and we are still trying take care of all the repairs. We spent approximately $650,000 repairing washed out roads and culverts last year. Unfortunately, the damage was not significant enough in our town to constitute a declaration of emergency by the State of Connecticut, so this did not trigger involvement by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). I was told FEMA did not get involved because the state and federal governments were going use federal funds to rebuild the most significant items destroyed, that is the bridges at Smith Road and Old Goshen Road. Our repair work still goes on. There are road retaining walls that need rebuilding, culverts that need work and roadside drainage that needs attention. These repairs are being worked on as money and time permit.

This brings us to the rebuilding of Smith Road and Old Goshen Road bridges. The Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) has a plan in place to rebuild both bridges at their expense, but unfortunately this will not happen until 2026. There has been a lot of discussion about when we can to get a temporary bridge at Smith Road. That’s a long story.

We currently have requests before the DOT, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We are working on obtaining approval from the Army Corps, which will allow us to move on to the DEEP. In late August, I spoke with a representative of the Army Corps and to our consulting engineer, Cardinal Engineering. Considering this is a health, welfare and safety issue, you would think this would be easy. But nothing is ever easy. Once the approvals are granted, we can then move forward with the installation of three 60-foot culverts and a temporary road surface, like what was there before the flooding. More updates to come.

On a positive note, although summer is nearly over, there are still plenty of activities to get excited about. Check out the Norfolk website at https://norfolkct.org/ and make plan to participate or better yet, volunteer to help. Take care and enjoy the rest of the summer.