The "Bridge Over Troubled Water": Walnut Hill Road Resident Still Experiencing Many Problems

Report and Photography by Paula Antolini

Nine year Bethel resident James Street lives in a beautiful 250-year-old home with his wife and two young daughters. This is one of the homes that surrounds the Walnut Hill Road / Limekiln Brook bridge currently in the completion stage of a bridge project that is taking over a year to build.

Of all the homes impacted by the bridge project, the Street family home sits closest to the newly constructed bridge, right at one end of it, in fact.  The Street family not only encountered problems during the bridge construction phase but are still dealing with other issues from this project that are ongoing during the completion phase, and that they plan on challenging.

"The worst part of it was in the very, very beginning. Lack of communication with everybody," Street said. "It was very very bad, poor, I am trying to think of a good word. There wasn't temporary power set up and they ran diesel generators in the beginning, for the pumps.  It wasn't the noise, it was mostly the fumes of the diesel, and I don't have air-conditioning in my house so the windows are open so we were confined to nothing, and the owner of the company called the police because I was shutting them off for the safety of my kids. I had permission to shut them off," Street said.

Street continued, "When everything started happening my wife called News 8, and that's when they [the town] were on our side, because News 8 called them and wanted to find out what was going on, with everything, with the whole apparatus of the diesel generators, and the generators were actually very very legal with the emissions and everything like that, but the breeze was just blowing right into our house."

Street also had other problems with vehicles driving onto his property in the wee hours of the morning and late at night too, he said, even though the normally high-traffic area was supposed to be closed.  "It had nothing to do with it being closed off, I love it being closed off because it was quiet," Street said, "What really bothers me is the lack of people not following the road closure signs and people coming down and coming on my property.  I have had a couple of incidences where people got stuck in my driveway at two o'clock in the morning. There was an 18-wheeler that came down here and then he had to back all the way out 11 o'clock at night."

In construction of the new bridge, the Streets gained about ten feet along the front of their property, but their driveway position was changed a few times and it is still not clear about where the driveway can be placed because no one has yet approved a definite location, Street said.  "I had to move my driveway, I wasn't too happy about that."

Street said the town engineer, Andrew Morosky, had personally viewed the property after Street had a new driveway designed and the area marked off and "Morosky said it was fine." But now it seems to still be presenting problems with exactly where he will be allowed a driveway curb cut, or maybe two, if he is allowed the U-shaped driveway he planned after this driveway issue came up.  

Street said the town is concerned about the driveway curb cut especially at the area near the bridge, citing "sight lines" as the reason. But Street said that the sight problems are not at the bridge end because he can "see fine from that side" of his property, when exiting the proposed driveway there. He said the issue is with the other side of his property near where there is a sharp curve in the road farther up, where vehicles come down the road at a high rate of speed and cannot be seen until they are upon his driveway area.  Street said his wife was almost in an accident from that situation. He feels that the present situation is endangering his family's safety.

There are more issues Street is not happy about that now add further woes.

Street presently has his home up for sale and said that the tall rusty pole that holds electrical wires across the street, directly opposite the front of his home, has already caused him to lose one buyer.  Now several large cement barriers were placed along the roadside adjacent to the bridge, also directly opposite his home. So, instead of the previously beautiful view of nature, they stare at a cement wall. He said he was told the barriers are put there to protect the large electrical pole, but that no barriers were there at all before the project began.

"And this ugly thing….. [Street pointed to the cement barricade]….we have a 250-year old house. "Did you argue against that?" I asked. "No because I am arguing against it now," Street said. "Who do you argue with?" I asked.  Street said, "Matt."  I asked, "Does he have any power to do anything? Street answered, "It's all the state, and whatever."

Street said he had been in touch with Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker after News 8 got involved, and that Knickerbocker even visited his home last Saturday. But Street also said he had no knowledge the cement barriers were going to be put in place until late in the project and he had no power to stop the placement.  He is in the process of trying to get them removed or changed now.  He also feels that the view of the ugly barricades will likely be an added negative issue in selling his home. He thinks the homeowners across the street might have an issue with the barricades too, as they have a view of the barriers from the opposite side.

Street noted problems another home has on the other side of the bridge.  He said the road had been "raised up a few feet" in that location causing the electrical wires above the street to now be too low. He indicated that the plans were to install a new pole to raise the wires up.  He mentioned his concern is that the next big vehicle coming down that road is likely to hit the wires.

The home Street mentioned, that is near those low wires, now sits at the bottom of a steep line of loose soil along the entire roadside lining this property, and all the trees in that area were removed for this project (many project workers previously mentioned that to me too).  

Although I was recently told by GM2 Associates (one of the companies hired to work on the bridge project) that there is a plan in place to add geotextile cloth and vegetation to hold the soil in place, the home still appears to sit a lot farther below the road than it was originally and we are left wondering if issues of drainage, vehicle traffic headlights, vehicle accidents, property landscaping and views of the road from the homes were considered or discussed with residents before this project began, or is it now an afterthought and problematic. Presently numerous guard rails still need to be installed along the roadside on either side of the bridge, some of which will be placed directly in front of this home across the majority of the property length, blocking homeowner views even further and perhaps making an eyesore of a previously quaint street.

There are also more safety issues. Street said he thought the three-way intersection near that home was one of the most dangerous intersections he has seen.

Yesterday a white pick up truck was parked sideways on the bridge to prevent anyone from traveling across the bridge and there were a few "road closed" and "detour" and "do not enter" signs too.  

It is left to be seen what the completion date is for this bridge project.  I will post updates as information is received.

*****

NOTE:  The story headline referred to the 1970 "Bridge Over Troubled Water" song by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel (also appearing on the album "Live 1969"). Some of our Patch readers might be familiar with the lyrics: "When you’re weary, feeling small, When tears are in your eyes …When times get rough, And friends just can’t be found, Like a bridge over troubled water…"