State officials on Monday installed an alternating one-way traffic light on Ponus Ridge at the Merritt Parkway as bridge repair (and roadway replacement) work gets underway there—a project that will continue through the summer of 2015.
This week saw the start of alternating one-way traffic at Ponus Ridge and the Merritt Parkway, while the state DOT completes roadway and bridge work there. The project is expected to last through next September, officials say. Credit: Michael Dinan
Part of a larger, $57 million Merrit Parkway Improvements project that spans several miles of the parkway (and starting in September will include South Avenue), the Ponus Ridge work involves removing the bridge deck, repairing the top of the bridge and then putting the bridge deck back, officials say.
“We will do that in sections, one side and then once that is upgraded and repaired, we will flop the traffic back to the other side,” Joe Sorcinelli, project engineer for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, told NewCanaanite.com.
Ponus Ridge at the Merritt will remain an alternating one-way intersection for the length of the project, he said.
What really matters in terms of the timing of the work is the condition of the bridge arch, Sorcinelli said. That won’t become clear until the bridge deck is removed, he said.
As scheduled, the work will overlap with another, local project on that side of town—namely, the replacement of the Jelliff Mill Bridge down toward 106. That project—expected to start next April and go on for two years—also will involve turning two continuous lanes of traffic into one alternating lane, officials have said. (A third project that is still in its early planning phases could involve digging up Jelliff Mill Road in order to extend a natural gas line into New Canaan from Stamford, officials have said.)
The larger DOT project includes rehabilitating 12 underpasses and overpasses of the Merritt, Sorcinelli said.
The intersection of Route 106 and the Merritt Parkway in New Canaan will see some lane closures—so that there will be just one lane of traffic in each direction, instead of two—during the day while the DOT finishes its bridge and roadway work there. Credit: Michael Dinan
In New Canaan, the DOT now is working on “cleaning and repair operations” at the Merritt overpass at Old Stamford Road/Route 106 (right by Talmadge Hill).
Motorists should expect lane closures there though “not every day,” Sorcinelli said.
“We’re not closing anything completely to traffic but rather than having two lanes in both directions you’ll have one lane in each direction,” he said.