Neighbors Grow Impatient with Maple Street Bridge Delays

Residents of East Haven’s Foxon neighborhood are growing impatient with the slow pace for replacing the Maple Street Bridge.

"People are calling me up and saying, ‘Paul, when is this going to be finished?'" said Councilman Paul Carbo, who lives nearby.

The aging span was the last of four Farm River bridges to be replaced by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The new bridge will also widen the channel and alleviate flooding in the area.

But a series of bureaucratic snafus have caused delays that now threaten to drag on until late this year or beyond.

Last year, it was the "pile fight," a disagreement between the contractor and the project engineer over the best way to drive steel support piles into the ground, which halted construction on the new bridge for two months.

The bridge replacement was already behind schedule by that point. It was supposed to be done by November, when the pile-driving dispute erupted. Then came the snowy winter of 2011, which resulted in additional delays.

Now, there is a new problem.

The west approach to the bridge has to be redesigned to accommodate a New Haven Sewer Authority sewer trunk line linking North Branford to a sewer treatment plant in New Haven. This eluded the attention of the engineers who did the original design work, which would have left the sewer line stranded in the river.

The sewer line must be relocated around the east side of the Maple Street Bridge, said Ralph Mauro, deputy director of town affairs.

“The sewer relocation was a major slowdown, beside the fact that we had a very difficult winter," said Mauro, the town’s point man on the project.

A visit to the bridge last week found work at a standstill. Nick Brangi and Patty Altrui, who live next to the bridge, say they are weary from the delays.

"It’s a pain. You get used to it, but…" said Brangi.

Altrui, who has lived there for 45 years, said she doesn’t understand why the Maple Street Bridge was left till last.

Two bridges downstream were done first, then the bridge upstream on River Road, which widened the channel and allowed the river to flow faster after rainstorms.

That increased the probability of flooding at her house, which has inundated her property up to her backdoor in the past, said Altrui.

Mauro said the involvement of the New Haven Sewer Authority has slowed the pace down even more, because every decision involving the sewer line has to be approved by the town, the authority, the contractor and the state. If anything has to be changed, a new series of approvals are needed, he said.

But once the $2.2 million project is completed, Mauro said the neighbors will have a safer bridge and less potential for flooding.

Carbo said his neighbors say they are tired of listening to the reasons why the bridge replacement has not been completed.

"People want to know when it is going to be done," he said.