As Norwalk Current reported, "It really is the start of a dramatic change to the city of Norwalk's skyline." That was Connecticut Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, standing in the North Water Street lot in September to announce the end of the two steel towers that have stood over the Norwalk River for more than a century.
Each tower is 234 feet tall. The lift towers replacing them will be about 100 feet shorter. Mayor Barbara Smyth called the towers part of the city's identity and said, "While there is certainly history in what we are saying goodbye to today, there is also immense excitement about what comes next."
The goodbye is also a logistics problem, and for the next two weeks most of the city's routines run through one small area. East Norwalk's trains, the extra bus service, the free weekend parking, the overnight road closures and two of the summer's notable openings all sit within a short walk of the bridge in South Norwalk.
Why a 130-year-old bridge gets this much attention
The Walk Bridge opened in 1896. It is the oldest movable bridge still in use on the Northeast Corridor, and it carries about 175 trains and 125,000 passengers a day. It was last rehabilitated in 1990, and it kept failing anyway: 12 times in 2011, 16 times in 2013, and twice in one two-week stretch in 2014. Those failures are the reason for the scaffolding and detours that East Avenue drivers have lived with for years.
Before the towers could come down, crews had to take out 31 cables strung between them, nine miles of wire in all. Power and rail systems had already been rerouted under the riverbed. That is why September and October count as two separate phases.
| Weekend | Work | What riders get |
|---|---|---|
| Sept. 12–13 and Sept. 19–20 | Wire demolition | Diesel trains about every 90 minutes through the work zone |
| Oct. 10–11 | High tower work | About five trains per work window, roughly 30% fewer seats |
| Oct. 17–18 | High tower work | About five trains per work window, roughly 30% fewer seats |
In its September 16 update, Metro-North said that across the reduced-service weekends, customers should expect about 55% fewer seats than on a typical weekend. The October tower weekends are lighter than that, with electric trains running through the work zone during scheduled windows. Local trains between Grand Central and Stamford are not affected, apart from a change to one Saturday-only morning train. The state planned five weekend outages between September 12 and November 1, with two extra weekends held in reserve for bad weather. During those weekends, parking is free at the Stamford Transportation Center and the South Norwalk garage. Metro-North says the schedule can change, so check before any October weekend trip.
East Norwalk riders are South Norwalk riders until October 18
East Norwalk station closed on Saturday, September 26, and stays closed through Sunday, October 18. No trains stop there in either direction. The north-side lot is closed, and East Norwalk parking permits are honored at the 182 East Avenue commuter lot. Riders are being sent to South Norwalk or Westport.
Norwalk Transit District's Route 5 is the free connection to the train. Its schedule from October 3 runs:
- Every 15 minutes from 5:30 to 8:45 a.m.
- Every 30 minutes from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Every 15 minutes from 3:45 to 8:45 p.m.
- No weekend service
Listed times are departures from the Burnell Boulevard Hub, and the route serves South Norwalk Station. Riders show their train pass to the bus operator. The bus doesn't run on weekends, and both tower weekends fall during the closure. So an East Norwalk household planning a Saturday in the city on October 10 or 17 needs a ride to South Norwalk or Westport, a seat on one of about five trains in each work window, and a plan for coming home.
The detours for the week of October 5
Here is the CTDOT schedule for this week around the bridge:
- East Avenue, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: traffic shifts to the west side of the road for drainage work on Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street. Pedestrians follow a posted detour north along Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street to the west-side sidewalk.
- East Avenue at Fort Point Street, Monday through Friday, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.: closed, with a posted detour.
- Osborne Avenue, Tuesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: closed under the railroad bridge.
- North Water Street, Friday through Sunday, 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.: closed between Marshall Street and Washington Street.
- Norwalk River: partial closures east and west of the channel.
Bridge construction runs around the clock, Monday through Saturday. The North Water Street closure lines up with weekend evenings, when the restaurant blocks just to the north are busiest.
Dinner a few blocks from the towers
Chef Giuseppe Castellano soft-opened Bar TerraMare at 122 Washington Street on Saturday, August 1. The menu is coastal Italian, with seafood, pasta and meat dishes. It sits on the block where Washington Street meets the North Water Street closure. On a Friday or Saturday night this month, plan to come in from Monroe or North Main rather than along the river.
Around the corner at 14 North Main Street, The Haven was serving on its renovated rooftop by early July. The update added a canopy and weather protection, which helps on an October evening.
The free weekend parking at the South Norwalk garage that the state is offering for rail riders puts a car within walking distance of both.
The openings away from the work zone
Some of the summer's other openings make good weekday stops while traffic near the bridge is slow.
- Silvermine Coffee Roasters, 29 Harbor Avenue. Mostly takeout coffee and whole beans rather than a sit-down café.
- Chez Jack, 666 Main Avenue, Suite 100. Breakfast and lunch, with coffee, sandwiches and poutine.
- Between Friends Sandwich Co., 314 Wilson Avenue. Weekday takeout and catering.
Regulars at Rincon Taqueria have already said goodbye. Its last day at 493 Connecticut Avenue was scheduled for August 1, after 15 years, and the city bought the property in a voluntary sale for a public-works project.
October 10, by car rather than by train
The first tower weekend is also the weekend of the Rowayton Library Oktoberfest fundraiser on October 10, at the Roton Point Association, 15 Pine Point Road, with food, live music and a silent auction. For guests coming up from the city that Saturday, the reduced train schedule is the thing to check first. Westchester and Greenwich locals are unaffected, but anything continuing east of Stamford runs in the limited work windows.
What goes up after the towers come down
The October weekends end the old bridge's most visible stage, but the project is far from done. CTDOT expects the replacement to be finished by 2030. In September, the commissioner said more than 250 workers were on the job and the project was on schedule. The new bridge is a two-span vertical lift design.
When East Norwalk station reopens on October 19, work there continues. Plans include two platforms long enough for six-car trains, new canopies, better parking and access, and a dedicated drop-off lane. The project page says station construction started in March 2024 and will take about four years.
After October 18, the 234-foot towers will be gone, and the replacements will stand about 100 feet lower.
Projects like this change how a house near the river or the station lives day to day, with commute routes, weekend plans and street noise all shifting with it. If you own near the work zone and want to talk through what the coming years could mean for your home, Kathleen Usherwood knows Norwalk block by block and is glad to walk it with you. Let's Connect.
