OLD LYME — The Halls Road Improvements Committee plans to host two Open Houses in the coming weeks to receive input from the public on the proposed Lieutenant River Bridge and Trails Design.
Both Open Houses will be held at Old Lyme’s Memorial Town Hall, with the first taking place on Saturday, Sept. 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the second Thursday, Oct. 5, from 5 to 8 p.m.
With grants from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Connecticut Trails, the Town of Old Lyme hired AI Engineers to create two alternative proposals for a new pedestrian/cyclist bridge over the Lieutenant River at the site of the old abutments.
The now-completed proposals will be presented at these Open House events, after which the Town will define a final design. The designs currently under consideration are a gluelam girder bridge and a steel bow truss bridge.
The public is invited to attend one or both of the Open Houses to learn about initial costs and upkeep for the various options, and grants for construction.
Opportunities will be given at the Open Houses to share your preferences regarding particular features of the proposals such as:
- bridge design
- railing types
- boardwalks
- ‘dark sky’ lighting
- landscaping
- fishing access
- river-park
- thematic signage.
This bridge is the most widely requested project in surveys and open house events of recent years.
Come see what a new bridge might look like, and help the town make optimum choices.
A bridge to nowhere?
The primary objective here has to be safe access of pedestrians from the historic district to the businesses on Halls Road, neither of these proposals do this.
The Gluelam bridge seems to be a more artistic design probably as close as possible to the original one you can get these days. As an artist in an art community with so much art history, I believe the Glueham bridge seems more appropriate. Also I can’t see how people could fish off the steel bow bridge.