The Route 1 bridge over Interstate 95 at Exit 9 in Stamford will be closed next Friday through Sunday (Aug. 16 to 18, that’s two weekends from now) as part of the not-yet-complete construction project for the new bridge, state and local officials have announced. — Here’s ConnDOT’s most recent announcement about the bridge closing. If ConnDOT announces the reopening early, you might find that announcement at the department’s i95Exit9.com website or on the ConnDOT Twitter feed in the righthand column of every Darienite.com Web page. Closing Route 1 (East Main Street) at the bridge will start at 6 p.m., Friday and continue as long as 6 p.m., Sunday.
Here’s a view of the bridge replacement at Exit 9 last month in a video from the Connecticut Department of Transportation that shows an up-close view of the construction project, with time-lapse video techniques and, at some points, aerial drone camerawork. “This is too good not to share,” First Selectman Jayme Stevenson said in an email. “What a fantastic project from planning through execution.” “Amazing time-lapse video,” said a tweet from Darien TV79, as it shared the video in the same tweet. The video lasts nearly five minutes. Here’s an aerial view of one of the two spans being put in place (looking toward Darien).
UPDATE, 9:44 a.m.: The highway project is over, at least as far as Interstate 95 traffic is concerned. Here’s the view from the traffic camera pointed southwest from the (new) Exit 9 bridge, showing traffic in both directions approaching and leaving the underpass:
Original article, 11:11 a.m., Saturday:
REMINDER: Second Tough Traffic Weekend for Darien as I-95 Exit 9 Shuts Down
Traffic is moving in both directions, up to and through the detour ramps at Exit 9 on Interstate 95, as the project to replace the bridge over the highway continues. Traffic and construction cameras livestreaming from the i95Exit9.com website as well as other Connecticut Department of Transportation cameras show the expected backups and slowdowns, but it’s no parking lot of stopped cars on either side. This backup on the southbound-traffic side of I-95, by the Darien South rest stop, is moving, as the two-second snapshots on the ConnDOT website reveal:
Here’s this weekend’s announcement from the Connecticut Department of Transportation on the ongoing bridge replacement project. The closure days and times follow the same pattern as last weekend, although the highway traffic was restored by Sunday morning, roughly a day before the Monday 5 a.m. deadline:
MOTORISTS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO AVOID THE AREA DURING THE CLOSURE TIMEFRAMES TO AVOID HEAVY TRAFFIC DELAYS
The Connecticut Department of Transportation is reminding motorists that the second of two scheduled weekend closures and detours of I-95 in Stamford at Exit 9, is set to begin on Friday, June 7, 2019.
The span over the northbound-traffic lanes of Interstate 95 is now in place, as of this morning, and traffic in both directions now flows under the bridge unimpeded, three lanes northbound, four lanes southbound. Next weekend, they install the span over the southbound-traffic side of the bridge. Connecticut Department of Transportation officials had said they might finish each weekend’s span replacement earlier than 5 a.m. Monday, when commuters would start driving under the bridge, and a couple of posts on a ConnDOT traffic website said the work might be done at noon on Sunday, but the highway was opened earlier than that. Here’s a look at the bridge from the ConnDOT traffic cam, looking southwest, with the southbound lanes on the right:
Compare with this image from the same camera, pointed in the same direction, about 24 hours earlier:
From one of the two streaming video feeds on the i95Exit9.com website:
Go a few miles from Exit 9 on I-95, and the highway traffic actually seems lighter than normal for a weekend around here. So where’s the Carmageddon? According to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, traffic was backed up 1.6 miles (southbound, as of 9:20 a.m.) and 2.2 miles (northbound, 7:56 a.m.) on Saturday morning. It didn’t appear to be much worse at midday Saturday. Take a look at these traffic camera pictures of the highway from the Connecticut Department of Transportation:
The highway at the construction site for the replacement Route 1 bridge certainly is blocked at Exit 9, with vehicles in both directions diverted to the exit ramps, so it’s not as if they reopened I-95.
While construction is taking place on I-95 at Exit 9 east of Stamford this Saturday and Sunday, June 1 and 2, Metro-North will add cars to its service to accommodate additional riders. Customers should expect the possibility of crowded conditions. — This announcement, incompetently buried (for how long?) on Metro-North’s website, was dug up Friday morning. After this article appeared, it was posted on the Metro-North home page. For customers traveling to the Yankee games at Yankee Stadium on Saturday and Sunday, Metro-North will operate a second Yankee Clipper train from New Haven, as well as the regularly scheduled train from Stamford, with additional return service after the game:
Inbound to Yankee Stadium- E. 153rd St., one additional train will be added departing New Haven at 3:12 PM and stopping at West Haven, Milford, Stratford, Bridgeport, Fairfield Metro, Fairfield, Southport, Green’s Farms, Westport, East Norwalk, South Norwalk, Rowayton, Darien, Noroton Heights and Stamford before arriving at the stadium station at 5:09 pm.
Let’s hack this thing. Here are 10 ideas, both obvious and not so obvious:
Do what you can during weekdays: Visit the supermarket, get your prescriptions, borrow your library books and videos then. Gas up the car. Treat this like a coming snow storm without the snow. The highway itself won’t be diverted to those detour ramps until 11 p.m., Friday, although entrance ramps will be closed at the interchange at 6 p.m.
Darien police have issued an announcement about expected heavy traffic, what they’re doing to deal with it and with some advice for you in dealing with it.
Don’t drive anywhere near I-95 in Stamford and Darien and don’t even think of driving over the Route 1 bridge at Exit 9 on the weekend of May 31 to June 2, or the following weekend. That’s the advice from the Connecticut Department of Transportation, which is replacing the bridge — which has been there since the highway was built in 1958 — on those two weekends. On each side of the highway at the construction site, a single lane, using the exit ramps, an entrance ramp and a ramp constructed specially for the purpose, will be available for those poor drivers who don’t have any alternative. Traffic is expected to be backed up for mile after mile, throughout the weekend. It’s gonna be Carmaggedon.
Expect lane closures on Interstate 95 near the Exit 9 bridge starting Monday and continuing for some unannounced time during weeknights (and overnight), the Connecticut Department of Transportation announced. “The regular work schedule for this project,” which may be changed if ConnDOT thinks it’s necessary, is from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. In other words, expect lane closures starting at 8 p.m., Monday nights and through Thursday evenings (ending by 5 a.m., Fridays) — every weeknight except Friday nights. The reason: Crews are removing asbestos, lead paint — and bird crap (and maybe bat crap) from the bridge to get it ready for this summer’s scheduled removal of the old span and replacement with the span now under construction next to the bridge. (ConnDOT didn’t actually use the phrase “bird crap” in its announcement — it preferred the phrase “guano abatement,” which might refer to either birds or bats or any other creatures pooping while situated the underside of the bridge.)
On the weekend of June 1 and 2, first one side of the span will be demolished and then one of the replacement spans now under construction (in the area ConnDOT officials call the “infield” on the northbound-side exit and entrance) will be moved into its place using special, extremely heavy duty vehicles. On June 8 and 9, the same thing will happen on the other side of the bridge.
The Connecticut Department of Transportation (Department) has launched a new website, I95Exit9.Com, marking the start of the public information campaign for the project to replace the Route 1 (East Main Street) Bridge over Interstate 95 at Exit 9, in Stamford. — an announcement from the Connecticut Department of Transportation
—See also: Rt. 1 Bridge Over I-95 at Exit 9 To Be Replaced By November 2019 (June 20, 2018; the article has a video and numerous pictures)
Utilizing Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) techniques, new bridge spans will be built in their entirety, adjacent to the existing bridge (with negligible traffic impacts) and then lifted and moved as one unit into place. The process of lifting and moving the spans, known as “bridge-moves” will necessitate the detour of I-95 and Route 1 over two weekends — June 1 to 2 and June 8 to 9 — in order to facilitate their installation over the highway and onto the existing bridge foundations. The new structure will be a two-span bridge, with the one span being replaced the first weekend, and the second span replaced on the following weekend.
The Route 1 bridge over Interstate 95 by Exit 9, about a third of a mile from Darien, will be shut down for two weekends in either June or July of next summer, state transportation officials told Stamford and Darien officials last week. For those who would normally go over the bridge, there will be a detour starting at Hamilton Avenue — the first right turn for anyone driving from Darien on Route 1. A couple of turns later, drivers can turn onto Courtland Avenue to get back to Route 1. For anyone on the highway, the Exit 9 off ramps will be turned into two-lane temporary detours. Southbound highway traffic will then take the on-ramp back to the highway.
