The Route 17 bridge in Middletown was replaced in less than 60 hours over the weekend in the second instance of the Connecticut Department of Transportation using pre-fabrication to limit roadwork’s impact on traffic. To see a time-lapse video of the $1.6 million bridge replacement, scroll to the bottom of this story.
This accelerated bridge technique calls on the contractor to make the main components of the bridge away from the roadway and then put them in place over a short period of time. Using this method, instead of a thoroughfare being impacted by lane closures for a year or two, the entire street is closed for less than a week.
In the Middletown project and the first accelerated bridge project – an I-84 bridge in Southington – the roadway was closed over the weekend for less than three days. The Middletown project closed the street at 7 p.m. Friday and reopened it at 6:15 a.m. Monday.
The $1.6 million project required contractor J. Iapaluccio, Inc. of Brookfield to demolish the old bridge and put a new box culvert in place to support a 41-foot-wide roadway.
Despite closing down the street for the weekend, the contractor still has some finishing work to do on the bridge to accommodate the 12-foot travel lanes and 9-foot shoulders. The entire project is expected to be complete in November.
DOWNLOAD PDFs
