The federal government has agreed to pay $161 million through a Federal Transit Administration grant to replace the problem-plagued Walk Bridge on the Metro-North line in Norwalk. The moveable bridge is 118 years old and this summer failed twice in a two-week period.
A separate Federal Transit Administration grant for $9 million will go toward an upgrade of the power system at the New Haven Rail Yard, where Connecticut”™s rail car fleet is maintained and which was damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
“The reliability of the Walk Bridge and the New Haven Line is of critical importance to the entire Northeast Corridor. Too many people depend on the commuter line to continue to see the kinds of disruptions we saw over the summer,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement accompanying the announcement of the grants. “Connecticut was among many East Coast states applying for these very competitive grants to ”˜harden”™ transportation infrastructure in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and I am pleased that we succeeded. This funding is great news for our economy and for our residents who rely on this system every day.”
“These two competitive awards ”“ $161 million for the Walk Bridge and $9 million for the New Haven Rail Yard ”“ are major victories for rail reliability in Connecticut and the region,” said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. “The catastrophic, repeat failures at the Walk Bridge earlier this year ”“ the result of decades of decay, deferred maintenance and neglect ”“ caused intolerable delays, disrupting thousands of commuters along the nation’s busiest rail line. The Walk Bridge is stuck in the 19th century, and a permanent, 21st-century solution is needed.”
