Summer’s here, and the time is right for pedestrian bridge repair.
At least that’s what the New York State Department of Transportation is cooking up: a major repair and reconstruction on part of the Waterbury Avenue pedestrian bridge, which connects Country Club and Waterbury-LaSalle near exit 7B of I-95. The portion of the bridge covering the southbound lane of the Bruckner Expressway is currently being rebuilt.
Part of the highway crossing had been serviced by a temporary structure that was put in place after a truck hit it on August 8, 2008.
The temporary structure has been removed and work crews were seen doing preliminary work on Monday, July 26.
According to a sign posted at the site, the bridge is closed from July 5 until September 7. Adam Levine, spokesman for DOT said that it should be open in time for school children from P.S. 14 to use on the first day of school, provided all goes according to plan.
“This is one of our Federal Recovery Act projects,” Levine said.
He said the DOT scheduled reconstruction to begin after the last day of the 2009-10 school year and to finish in time for the start of the 2010-11 school year.
Andrew Chirico, of the Waterbury LaSalle Community Association wished the community would have received a reminder that the DOT did expect work on the new bridge to begin and be completed this summer.
“It is important that they let you know when the construction on the bridge is going to occur because, obviously, there are people on both sides that use that bridge,” Chirico said.
Senator Jeff Klein and Assemblyman Michael Benedetto worked with the DOT to get a temporary structure in place before the start of the 2008-09 school year.
Country Club Civic Association president Marcia Pavlica said the bridge is heavily used by the community. “My concern,” she said, “is that here we are at the end of July, and many kids will be needing the bridge early in September.”
