CONNECTICUT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION NEWS RELEASE 2800 BERLIN TURNPIKE P.O. BOX 317546 NEWINGTON CONNECTICUT, 06131-7546

FOR RELEASE: March 19, 2013

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS TELEPHONE: (860) 594-3062 FAX: (860) 594-3065 WEB SITE: www.ct.gov/dot

Putnam Bridge (Rt 3) Rehabilitation Project to Begin April 1

      The Connecticut Department of Transportation is announcing the start of work on Monday, April 1, 2013, for the rehabilitation of the Putnam Bridge, which carries Route 3 over the Connecticut River between Wethersfield and Glastonbury and over Great Meadow Road in Wethersfield.

      The four-lane bridge opened in 1959 and is 2,393 feet long. On an average day, the bridge carries 54,200 vehicles.

      The project consists of rehabilitation work the bridge, including steel and concrete repairs; painting of structural steel; replacement of the center median barrier and the north and south parapet barriers; the addition of a sidewalk on the south side of the bridge; replacement of the existing bridge bearings and bridge joints; and the milling and resurfacing of the bridge deck.   

      DOT Contract 0053-0175 was awarded to Mohawk Northeast, Inc. of Plantsville, Connecticut, on February 13, 2013, at a cost of $30,297,746.60 and is scheduled to be completed in May 2015. The Putnam Bridge, officially the William H. Putnam Bridge, is DOT Bridge No. 0417.

      William Putnam was chairman of the Greater Hartford Bridge Authority, created in 1955 by then-Governor Abraham Ribicoff. Putnam died nine months before the bridge opened.

LANE CLOSURE INFO:

Some work will require weekend closures of one direction of the Putnam Bridge.  A minimum of two weeks advance notice will be provided prior to these closures occurring.