Connecticut bridge number 696, over Route 15, is in the town of Greenwich. This historical structure was first constructed in the early 1940’s, along with the rest of the Merritt Parkway. It is in Art Deco style with double-arched rigid frames resting on steel center piers. The steel is adorned with cast-iron ornaments of grapevines and classicizing urns—black with gold accents. In 2019, the bridge was reconstructed to match the original look.

Rarely do engineers replace existing structures with identical ones; Knowing the past allow us to learn and adapt our techniques—often forcing the looks to change drastically. One of the reasons why I love the Merritt Parkway is because the bridges aren’t just there to support traffic—each one is a work of art, and art restoration is a major component. Anytime an issue is addressed, the visual impact must be considered. With these structures approaching 80-90 years in age, major repair work is commonplace.

I was introduced to this project in 2016, along with my new work crew. We worked on the rehab of a small stretch of the Parkway. At first, this bridge only needed a new deck (the concrete slab that cars ride over), but soon realized more work was needed.  To the public, this was the same bridge (well, a different color from what they were used to). To us, it was an opportunity to see how construction looked in the 30s & 40s. With the low amount of traffic on the Parkway at the time, construction had freer reigns in ways not feasible, today. Welding occurred on-site—allowing stresses to distribute differently than if they were done at the shop and brought in; lane closures allowed for heavy machinery to perform work in hard-to-reach areas.

We studied the way the original structure was erected to see how it could be improved. Most of the ornamental work was taken offsite for restoration, some had to be recreated due to severe deterioration. Other had to be fabricated using stainless steel to avoid problems later. The color of the bridge was restored to its original black and gold—I didn’t even know the light blue the bridge wore recently was a maintenance decision to preserve the steelwork, and not its original look.

As the second painting in my bridge series (2021-present), this one had the retirement of a supervisor in mind. He was my, and other young engineers’, mentor during design. We spent a lot of Saturdays together finalizing the details for this, and other projects, we didn’t have enough time for during the week—even after I was moved to a different crew, with other projects. When the bridge was finished, in late 2019, some of us had the opportunity to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the site. I still keep a piece of the ribbon with me.

Rev. 08/2022