The city’s riverwalk and park project may go out for bidding in a few months now that it has an important city approval.
The Board of Aldermen voted at Tuesday night’s meeting to commit the city to building a pedestrian bridge over the Metro-North rail lines, the eighth and final segment of a long-planned riverwalk in and around the city’s downtown area, along the Naugatuck River.
Peter Burns, a project manager with DeCarlo and Doll, Inc. of Hamden, said the bridge will be built at the end of the current flood control dike on west side of the Naugatuck River. It will run westerly over the railroad tracks to the intersection of Pershing Drive and Clifton Street.
Tuesday’s resolution calls for the city to finish the work by July 2017.
Burns said the city already has about $1.5 million in Federal Highway Administration money lined up to complete the first seven phases of the riverwalk, to be built near Division Street at the Ansonia-Derby border.
The city would be responsible for the last section, expected to cost between $500,000 and $700,000. The entire project is expected to cost up to $2.4 million.
Burns said U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D‑3rd District) is working to include language in a transportation bill to cover the eighth segment.
Although the city has most of the funds ready, Burns said the state Department of Transportation limits what can be designed based on the money available for construction.
“All it says is that between today and 2017, the city will come up with the balance of the money,” Burns said.
DeCarlo and Doll are close to the riverwalk’s final design, Burns added.
He’s optimistic it will go out for bidding by next spring.
Aldermanic President Stephen Blume hopes to see the riverwalk soon.
“I can’t wait for it to be done,” he said.
