Sophie Driscoll ’19

The Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) is currently conducting an Environmental Assessment of The William F. Cribari Memorial Bridge, which carries Route 136 over the Saugatuck River.

“This analysis will examine a range of alternatives that address the purpose and need of maintaining a safe and operable bridge,” Priti S. Bhardwaj, Project Manager for the Cribari Bridge Project, said.

According to Bhardwaj, the Environmental Assessment will most likely take more than a year to complete, and no construction plans for the bridge will be formulated until completion.
The Cribari Bridge Project was first initiated by CTDOT on May 20, 2015.

“The original reason for all this was some concerns that the piers–the things that the bridge sits on–were deteriorating, and they need to be repaired,” Jim Marpe, Westport First Selectman, said.

Students have expressed concern surrounding the bridge being altered or replaced.

“I would hate to lose it,” Tabby Burke ’19 said. “It’s part of the fabric of our community, and has been for generations.”

This past August, Marpe and fellow members of the the South Western Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (SWRMPO) declined approximately $42 million in federal and state funding, effectively removing projects pertaining to Cribari Bridge from the CTDOT’s 2018-2021 Transportation Improvement Program. Marpe believes that this gave Westport more control of the fate of the bridge.

As a result, rehabilitation efforts will not happen as immediately as they would have if the SWRMPO had accepted funding.

“It’s, at a minimum, to delay the process until we have a better understanding of what the Department of Transportation would like to construct and how that looks,” Marpe said. “To reintroduce those projects to the region requires regional approval.”

According to Connecticut State Representative Jonathan Steinberg, people assume that if SWRMPO had accepted federal funding, the bridge would be raised in order to meet federal standards. Raising the bridge would allow 18-wheel trucks to use the bridge.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily a guarantee, because the state could do it on its own money,” Steinberg said.

Ultimately, Marpe and Steinberg, as well as Representative Town Meeting member and Downtown Plan Implementation Committee Co-Chair Melissa Kane, hope to make the bridge safer while preserving its look and feel. All three of them believe that the bridge should not be opened up to 18-wheel trucks.

“I think [the Cribari Bridge is] emblematic of Westport, and it’s historic and special, and the look of it should definitely not change,” Kane said. “Beyond that, I completely agree that there’s no way we can let 18-wheel trucks access that road, use that bridge and add more traffic to Saugatuck.”

Kane stated that, although renovations to the bridge alone cannot solve the problem of traffic in the Saugatuck area, widening the bridge slightly may help reduce it.

“The bridge is part of a larger issue with traffic in Saugatuck, and even doing any work to the bridge is not going to solve the traffic problems in Saugatuck, but it can certainly help a little bit,” she said.

Steinberg also noted that the structure of the bridge has changed slightly over time. For example, its opening mechanism,,originally hand-operated,,is now,motorized.

“It’s more symbolic,” Steinberg said. “It’s more the character of the bridge and of Saugatuck in general that people want to preserve.”