Pedestrian bridge remains stalled...

A plan to put a pedestrian bridge across the Pequabuck River near the Veterans Tribute Walkway remains stalled in the hands of state and federal regulators.
City officials say they’re frustrated at the lack of action by the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in approving the permits needed before work can get underway on the project.
Mayor Art Ward said he’ll ask U.S. Rep. John Larson, the East Hartford Democrat whose 1st District includes Bristol, to push for an expedited review of the application.
The goal of the project is to put up an 80-foot long pedestrian bridge that would span the river between a city-owned parking lot on Riverside Avenue and Memorial Boulevard. It would allow easier access to the memorials and monuments along the historic parkway.
Public works officials said years ago they did not expect much trouble with regulatory agencies because the bridge abutments on both sides would be located outside the river’s channel. The bridge walkway would be more than 3 feet higher than the expected flood crest of the worst storm in a century, according to permit paperwork.
Jonathan Rosenthal, the city’s economic development director, said that a city projects review last spring put off the allocation of about $400,000 for the project.
The city applied for the permits a year and a half ago.
The city used downtown revitalization money to acquire the Riverside Avenue property for $179,000 during Mayor Frank Nicastro’s tenure in 2002 and tapped Community Development Block Grant aid to pay the $43,000 demolition fee to knock down the old Hubbard & Co. Feeds & Fertilizer building there in 2003.
Offiials planned to construct the pre-fabricated walking bridge over the Pequabuck and to use the former Hubbard’s Florist shop on the site for handicapped-accessible bathrooms, meeting space and perhaps more.
The demolition of the old barn on the 296 Riverside Ave. property was former Mayor Gerard Couture’s first major action at the helm at City Hall. The day it came down, in November 2003, Couture said he would push the project through quickly.
"It’s going to really put the icing on the cake to the Boulevard," Couture said at the time.
Now, more than four years later, nothing has happened with the property, though the city has brushed off a few developers with an interest in it.
Rosenthal said that he anticipates that someday it will become park property.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com