Construction is officially underway to replace the Walk Bridge, the troublesome 127-year-old Norwalk, Conn., railroad crossing with a new, more reliable structure better suited to the northeast’s growing volume of passenger traffic.
A May 14 groundbreaking ceremony in Norwalk signaled the beginning of the six-year, $925-million Connecticut Dept. of Transportation project, which calls for two independent, two-track vertical lift spans to be built around the existing four-track swing bridge spanning the Norwalk River to safely preserve two-track service throughout construction. The HNTB-designed replacement bridge will also include 145-ft-tall lift towers that will lift each of new 240-ft-long spans approximately 60 ft, providing redundancy in the event of a track outage. New fixed east and west approaches, embankments and abutments will also be built.
