VIDEO: Connecticut Officials Celebrate Rapid Reopening of I-95 Bridge After Destructive Fire
Thu May 09, 2024 - Northeast Edition #11 CEG
Connecticut officials on May 6 praised first responders and construction crews who worked through the previous weekend to get a stretch of Interstate 95 in Norwalk reopened to traffic following a tractor-trailer fire under the structure early on May 2.
Hundreds of construction personnel worked to demolish the Fairfield Avenue Bridge, which was heavily damaged in the blaze, and quickly get the highway surface ready for vehicle travel.
At the site of the crash four days later, state and local officials gathered to celebrate a return to normalcy for traffic on the busy section of I-95, which fully reopened May 5 to both northbound and southbound travel.
Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto praised the efforts of his agency's personnel, as well as those from federal agencies, and his transportation counterparts in other states, "from Maryland all the way up to Massachusetts," Eucalitto said.
He was joined at the news conference by Gov. Ned Lamont, who noted, "Too often in government you have politicians who overpromise and underdeliver. Not the people standing behind me here. These guys over-delivered."
He added that the demolition of the bridge and the reconstruction of the interstate highway "was an amazing work of art."
Connecticut Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal praised the demolition and road crews for their "symphony of teamwork" in getting the critical repairs made as quickly as possible.
"Guys behind me here have been without sleep for quite a while, and, as good as they look, [these people] in the yellow vests have given time, effort and energy," he added.
No One Injured in Crash That Set Off Fire
The fiery three-vehicle crash that closed I-95 on May 2 unfolded after a 22-year-old Stamford driver of a Chevrolet Camaro struck the front end of an oil tanker while attempting to change lanes, according to an accident report.
CT Post reported that the sports car was traveling southbound in the interstate's far right lane around 5:30 a.m. when it merged into the right center lane occupied by the tanker, leading to the initial collision, Connecticut State Police officials wrote in a two-page crash summary.
The tanker, which was hauling 8,500 gal. of oil, then veered into the left center lane, struck a tractor-trailer, and burst into flames before coming to a stop directly under the Fairfield Avenue overpass.
Unbelievably, none of the three drivers involved were hurt, CT Post noted.
Following the major collision, which shut down the freeway and snarled traffic in lower Fairfield County and other parts of Connecticut, CTDOT and its contractors went right to work to get I-95, the East Coast's busiest traffic artery, reopened in less than 80 hours.
State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, a Norwalk Democrat, told CT Post "there was gridlock, really, throughout the city" from the time of the crash through to the highway's reopening on May 5.
The work involved demolishing the Fairfield Avenue Bridge due to the severe damage it sustained from the collision and fire, in addition to removing tons of concrete, steel and debris from the roadway, sweeping the interstate, performing all new milling and paving, and restriping I-95's pavement markings.
Josh Morgan, a CTDOT spokesperson, said the affected section of I-95 carries more than 120,000 vehicles per day, and it was vital to both Connecticut and the region to get it moving again.
"We saw on traffic cameras, when just that small section of I-95 was shut down, the logjam that it created on other highways as well as the local roads in Norwalk," he explained.
Bridge Replacement Will Not Happen Quickly
Still, replacing the highway overpass bridge will take time and money.
Eucalitto said the demolition and reconstruction would likely cost around $20 million, with a ribbon-cutting hopefully coming within a year. Blumenthal added that the federal government would bear the brunt of that cost.
While crews were working to make the highway suitable for traffic once more, CTDOT engineers spent the weekend developing preliminary replacement plans for the Fairfield Avenue Bridge. Those designs were expected to be completed within two weeks.
At the State Capitol in Hartford May 6, CTDOT workers were introduced and applauded in front of both chambers of the General Assembly.
"What an extraordinary thing to do," noted Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, a New Haven Democrat. "It points out the work that our state employees do in crisis situations and how much that can mean to us. Everybody in the General Assembly certainly celebrates what you did."
