Officials Vow Arrigoni Work is on Track

Officials from the region who attended a meeting today in Middletown on the Arrigoni Bridge reconstruction project expressed concerns that the work might not finish on time this year.

During the morning meeting hosted by the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce, officials with the state’s Department of Transportation and the contractor doing the bridge work assured local leaders that the work will be done on schedule by November.

“The project is on schedule and we believe we’re going to finish on time,” said Kenneth E. Fargnoli, the DOT engineer coordinating the bridge project.

Chamber president Larry McHugh said some business owners in the city’s north end and on the Portland side of the bridge have expressed concerns because they’ve heard rumors that the project is seven weeks behind schedule.

Fargnoli and representatives for the contractor said that rumor is not true. While the bridge work fell a few weeks behind schedule during the first phase of the project in the fall, the second phase, which begins in two weeks, will move along much faster, putting the project back on track.

But some officials who attended the meeting questioned why the work is behind schedule at all and why, given the warm, snow-free winter so far, it isn’t ahead of schedule.

“I thought … they’d be ahead more than they are, especially with this weather,” said Anthony Salvatore, Cromwell’s police chief.

DOT officials said the project fell behind because of delays in the delivery of materials, a situation that was not under the contractor’s or DOT’s control. They also said that while workers will make up that lost time this spring, they can’t begin laying the asphalt on the new bridge decking until the state’s asphalt plants open for the spring in the first or second week of April.

Middletown Acting Police Chief William McKenna said he hopes the project wraps up on time because it is beginning to take a financial toll on the city. McKenna said he recently went to the Common Council with a request for an additional $100,000 for his department for extra police coverage on Main Street and the bridge. The council gave him $50,000 instead.

“It’s a financial impact to the businesses and to us as a city,” he said.

McHugh asked if the state had any funds available to offset the city’s cost for the additional police coverage, but Fargnoli said the project is running nearly $1 million over budget.

The second phase of the project will start the weekend of Jan. 28 when workers will shift the flow of traffic to the two lanes that are now closed. To do that, only one lane of the bridge will remain open starting at 2 p.m. on Jan. 28 through Jan. 29. Two lanes will reopen in time for the morning commute on Jan. 30, officials said.