Photo courtesy of CTDOT

A Caterpillar 352 with a teledipper attachment and a Caterpillar long-reach excavator work on secant excavation in the southeast quadrant.

As construction work continues on the WALK bridge, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) launched the TIME-2 project that involves the rebuild or renovation of four additional bridges on or near the Metro-North Railroad (MNR) New Haven Line (NHL) in East Norwalk.

Photo courtesy of CTDOT

CTDOT's Track Improvement Mobility Enhancement TIME-2 Project is a subcomponent of the WALK bridge replacement project.

CTDOT awarded the project to the Cianbro-Middlesex Joint Venture, which links the Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield, Maine, with Middlesex Construction of Littleton, Mass.

The TIME-2 project includes the Fort Point Street railroad bridge, the East Avenue railroad bridge, the Osborne Avenue railroad bridge and the Strawberry Hill Avenue bridge.

Site preparation, mobilization and support of excavation work started in December 2023. Major construction activities commenced in early spring 2024.

"The contractor has installed micropiles to support excavation and completed some bridge seat modifications at some of the local TIME-2 bridges," said Rory McGlasson, spokesperson of WSP, an engineering firm that is CTDOT's program management consultant for the WALK bridge Time-2 project. "That work started in early January to March 2024. Work on four bridges will ramp up … around late July this year. The TIME-2 local bridges should be completed in early 2028."

The Fort Point Street railroad bridge will be replaced with a 42-ft., four-track span, increasing the roadway width while preserving the existing vertical clearance. Roadway realignment on Fort Point Street includes realigning Fort Point Street with South Smith Street, creating a T-intersection with improved sightlines.

The East Avenue railroad bridge project includes the replacement of the 100-year-old span. Horizontal clearance under the bridge widens to approximately 58 ft. while vertical clearance increases from 12.2 ft. to 14.3 ft.

Photo courtesy of CTDOT

The Osborne Avenue railroad bridge project includes a new superstructure and rehabilitates the substructure while maintaining the current vertical and horizontal clearances.

Built in 1890, the Strawberry Hill Avenue railroad bridge supports four tracks of the NHL. The Strawberry Hill Avenue bridge project includes the rehabilitation of the railroad bridge superstructure. The project replaces the existing bridge superstructure and updates the supporting structure underneath while maintaining the current vertical and horizontal clearances.

The superstructure replacement will be built in halves during the construction of the WALK bridge, allowing work to be performed during planned two-track outages for the WALK bridge replacement and are coordinated with the other TIME-2 railroad improvement projects at East Avenue, Fort Point Street and Osborne Avenue.

The construction equipment used on the Walk bridge Time 2 project includes a Liebherr LR1300 crane working on a southeast trestle, a Manitowoc MLC300 crawler crane working on southwest trestle installation and a Caterpillar 352 excavator with a teledipper attachment and a Caterpillar long -each excavator working on secant excavation. CEG

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