The recent fire under the Park Avenue viaduct in Harlem, which disrupted commutes of a quarter million Metro-North riders, got me thinking: our aging, crumbling and vulnerable transportation infrastructure is close to collapse, and the effects of such failure could be catastrophic. Consider this track-record:
Walk Bridge
Posted inCT Viewpoints, Talking Transportation
Of Connecticut’s stuck legislation, bridges, commuter trains and parking garage
Remember Gov. Dannel Malloy’s stealth proposal for a “Transit Corridor Development Authority,” described by some as “eminent domain on steroids?” Well, the initial idea to allow the state to acquire any land within a half-mile of train stations was modified, then killed in the legislature. And that’s not the only thing that got stuck recently.
Posted inPolitics
Congressman Himes rode political roller-coaster in 113th Congress
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Jim Himes faced some big challenges during the two years of the outgoing Congress and will find himself in a shrinking pool of centrists in the new session that is gaveled in after the New Year. (This is the fourth in a series of stories about the roles each member of the Connecticut congressional delegation played in the 113th Congress.)
Posted inPolitics
Railroads cite ‘success’ of Niantic Bridge replacement to lobby feds
Washington — As part of a campaign to lobby for federal funds, the One Rail Coalition, composed of freight, passenger train and labor groups, said the replacement of the Niantic River Bridge is a “success story” that proves federal help to railroads is a good investment.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Feds provide $161 million toward replacing balky Norwalk rail bridge
The federal government Wednesday awarded Connecticut a competitive grant of $161 million toward replacement of the 118-year-old Walk Bridge in Norwalk, a movable bridge whose failure in the open position halted Metro-North and Amtrak traffic twice this year on one of the busiest rail corridors in the U.S.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
Malloy releases $3 million Walk Bridge repair plan
Gov. Dannel Malloy on Thursday released a $3 million plan to make emergency repairs on the crippled Walk Railroad Bridge over the Norwalk River.
Posted inNews
Number of deficient CT bridges on the rise
WASHINGTON – The Walk Bridge in Norwalk is not the only bridge in Connecticut that has problems by a long shot. There are hundreds, and the number in poor condition has been climbing since 2006.
Posted inNews
Feds to send team to inspect Walk Bridge
WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration is sending a team of inspectors to Connecticut next week to assess the conditions of all of the state’s five movable railroad bridges, including the Norwalk River’s Walk Bridge, whose recent malfunctions have snarled commuter traffic.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Neglected bridge makes deferred maintenance a losing bet
By making replacement of an 118-year-old rail bridge a second-term funding priority, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy took a gamble won by other governors, but not him. The odds of winning federal funding to fix the malfunctioning bridge are slim, which makes deferred maintenance — a quiet crisis plaguing the length of the Boston-Washington rail corridor — into an urgent election-year issue in Connecticut.
Posted inMoney, Politics
McKinney vs. Barnes: Apples & oranges, busway & bridges
Sen. John P. McKinney, a Republican candidate for governor, linked the state’s failure to maintain a Norwalk rail bridge Thursday to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s decision to greenlight construction of the Hartford to New Britain busway.
The governor’s secretary of the policy and management, Ben Barnes, said the Senate minority leader was comparing apples to oranges.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Norwalk bridge to remain closed? Depends who’s talking
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., surprised the Malloy administration by announcing Thursday that a mechanical swing bridge in Norwalk would remain in the closed position during repairs, providing reliable passage for Metro-North commuter trains while interrupting marine traffic on the Norwalk River.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Metro-North ‘crisis’ slow to build — with no quick fix
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy held a “crisis summit” Monday at Metro-North, but the surest time for preventing the latest service interruption on nation’s busiest commuter railroad most likely passed a decade ago during the waning days of the administration of Gov. John G. Rowland.