"For so long, these towers have stood as part of Norwalk's skyline," Mayor Barbara Smyth said in September, according to Norwalk Current. "While there is certainly history in what we are saying goodbye to today, there is also immense excitement about what comes next."
She spoke at the North Water Street lot. Behind her stood two 234-foot steel towers over the Norwalk River, and for most of their lives they did a job few people thought about. The towers were utility structures. Westfair calls them that in its October coverage, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation describes the work as removing "two 234-foot-tall utility towers and overhead wire systems" from the bridge. They could only come down after that job moved underground, and moving it took most of a decade.
What the Towers Were Holding Up
Until recently, two live 115-kilovolt power lines crossed above the bridge. At the September event, Eversource's Wayne Gagnon said the utility rerouted both lines underground, through city streets and beneath the Norwalk River. He said the work kept electric service reliable for the surrounding neighborhood and supported more than 150 union jobs over nine years.
Rail systems went under the riverbed too. That buried work is the reason this fall's demolition could happen. Once the power ran beneath the water, the steel above it was holding up only wire that no longer had a purpose, and the wire had to come down before the steel could.
That wire added up to a lot. CTDOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said crews had to remove 31 cables strung between the towers before taking the towers apart, about nine miles of wire in all. He called the removal "the start of a dramatic change to the city of Norwalk's skyline."
The Order Things Came Down
The stages overlap, but they follow that order:
- Power and rail systems go underground. Eversource's two 115-kilovolt lines and the rail systems were moved beneath the riverbed before the September announcement.
- Train service gets cut back on weekends. CTDOT, Metro-North and Amtrak announced five reduced-service weekends over eight weeks, running September 12 through November 1, so crews could work on the high towers. Eucalitto said two more weekends were held in reserve in case of bad weather.
- Teardown begins in September. Norwalk Current's photo report from September 14 said crews had begun tearing down the old towers that weekend, "the first of several planned over the coming weeks." Eucalitto had said the 31 cables between the towers had to come down before the towers themselves could.
- The steel comes down in sections from October 10. Westfair reported that removal of the 234-foot towers began October 10, partway through the reduced-service weekends. Because of their height, they are cut into sections and lowered to the ground.
- Next comes the bridge itself. The project's FAQ says crews will dismantle the existing bridge after the high towers are gone, then build the new movable lift bridge and its approach spans in later phases.
The project's own post, quoted by Westfair, calls the towers "the most notable feature associated with the 1896 span." As they come down, the bridge they stood on moves next in line.
The Weekends That Are Left
The heaviest disruption is close to over. The special Metro-North weekend schedule stays in effect through Sunday, November 1, and the East Norwalk station has one more closed weekend after that.
| Dates | What changes | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 31 to Sun., Nov. 1 | East Norwalk station closed. Special Metro-North weekend schedule in its final weekend. | WALK Bridge project |
| Mon., Nov. 2 | Regular service resumes at East Norwalk with the first trains. | WALK Bridge project |
| Sat., Nov. 7 to Sun., Nov. 8 | East Norwalk station closed again. | WALK Bridge project |
| Mon., Nov. 9 | Regular service resumes at East Norwalk with the first trains. | WALK Bridge project |
On reduced-service weekends, CTDOT said main-line trains run between Grand Central and South Norwalk, express from Grand Central to Stamford and local from Stamford to South Norwalk. A shuttle train covers New Haven to Bridgeport, and trains between New Haven and Stamford are significantly limited and may be crowded. In September, the state also said it would offer free weekend parking at the Stamford Transportation Center and the South Norwalk parking garage during the outages. Before heading out, the project recommends the MTA TrainTime app. CTDOT also points riders to MTA.info/alerts.
East Norwalk riders have already been through a longer stretch than these weekends. The City of Norwalk closed the station for three weeks starting September 26, gave weekday commuters a free Route 5 bus to South Norwalk, and reopened the station for regular service on October 19.
Around the Bridge This Week
The construction zone reaches past the tracks. The project bulletin for the week of October 26 lists:
- East Avenue: paving on Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Drivers are shifted to the west side of East Avenue. Pedestrians follow a posted detour north along Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street to the west-side sidewalk.
- North Water Street: closed between Marshall Street and Washington Street on Monday morning, October 26.
- Osborne Avenue: closed at the railroad bridge Monday through Wednesday.
- Norwalk River: partial river closures east and west of the navigation channel.
- The bridge itself: day and overnight work, Monday through Saturday, around the clock.
The project notes that all of this is subject to change because of weather and other conditions. Questions go to the project team at 1-833-462-9255 or [email protected], and the construction activities map shows each closure.
North Water Street and the river closures follow a pattern that started earlier. In mid-October, Westfair reported that North Water Street was closing between Washington and Marshall Streets every weekend, Friday through Monday, through November 2, with one sidewalk left open, and that the schedule could change. The weekly bulletin is the place to check before driving or boating near the bridge.
What Rises in Their Place
The new bridge will have towers too, just lower ones. Norwalk Current reported that the replacement is a dual-span vertical lift bridge. Its lift towers will stand about 100 feet shorter than the 234-foot towers coming down now. From SoNo and East Norwalk, the river crossing will still have vertical structure, just at a lower height than anyone in the city has seen there.
Eucalitto said the bridge was last rehabilitated in 1990 and kept failing after that, with 12 failures in 2011, 16 in 2013, and two in a single two-week stretch in 2014. That is a heavy failure rate for a bridge that, according to Westfair, carried 125,000 passengers and 175 trains a day before 2020. It opened in 1896 and is the oldest movable bridge still standing on the Northeast Corridor, the line from Washington, D.C., to Boston. State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff put the stakes another way, saying disruptions on the corridor cost the regional economy more than $100 million a day.
The schedule runs years ahead. Westfair puts the project at nearly $1 billion, with construction on the new bridge and demolition of the old one under way since 2023. In September, Eucalitto said more than 250 workers were on the job and the project was on track for completion in 2030. CTDOT's September 9 release and the project FAQ give the same 2030 date for the new bridge to enter service.
After the towers, crews take down the 1896 span, and the lower lift towers go up after that.
The river crossing at SoNo and East Norwalk will look different every year between now and 2030, and homes near it will be judged against a waterfront that is still changing. If you own near the Norwalk River and want to understand where your property stands while that work goes on, Jackie Davis & Team can walk you through it calmly and in confidence. Request a Confidential Home Valuation.
