Walk The Bridge

[Shane Rouse]

Joinus for our limited Night Tours in 2023! This is an opportunity to be on the catwalk surrounded by the sights and sounds of the night with these tours only running during limited times in the year!

This was an awesome experience! Our guide was really knowledgeable about the bridge and the area. He let us take our time so we could all get good shots of the views with our cameras. He even took pics of everyone on the tour with our cameras. Highly recommend doing this!!

I've been wanting to do this since it opened, and it did not disappoint. It's so unique, where else can you do something like this? Interesting, beautiful, and adventurous without being physically taxing. Told my husband all about it, and now he wants to go, so we'll be back!

The vertical lift span design maintains navigation on the Norwalk River and provides a widened, unobstructed channel alignment with the Stroffolino Bridge. The replacement bridge features two movable spans carrying two tracks each, which can be operated individually in case of a necessary track outage.

The vertical lift span bridge incorporates innovative engineering and construction techniques and technologies that allow the bridge to be more resilient and withstand extreme weather, load, and external forces.

No bus transportation across the bridge will be provided as part of the event. Walkers who decide to walk across the entire bridge will need to arrange their own transportation back to the end of the bridge where they started after the bridge reopens to public traffic at noon. There is limited parking space available west of the Mackinac Bridge Authority plaza area.

For those seeking alternative transportation during the event, the local Mackinac Island ferry companies offer transportation between St. Ignace, Mackinaw City, and Mackinac Island, as well as between St. Ignace and Mackinaw City. Local transportation companies also offer shuttle service between various locations.

The walk begins in St. Ignace at the north end of the Mackinac Bridge in the Upper Peninsula, and in Mackinaw City at the south end of the bridge in the Lower Peninsula. To participate in the walk you may:

Walkers will use the left-hand outside paved lane as they walk onto the bridge, regardless of which end of the bridge they start from. Walkers who turn back at the midpoint will turn right, then return using the opposite side outside paved lane. Walkers who choose to cross the entire bridge will stay in the left-hand outside paved lane all the way across.

Baby strollers and wheelchairs are allowed on the bridge during the walk. Prohibited items include signs, banners, umbrellas, bicycles, roller skates, skateboards, wagons and similar types of devices. With the sole exception of working service dogs, no animals are allowed. Walkers must stay away from bridge railings. The inside lane in both directions will remain open for emergency vehicles.

You will receive a numbered bridge walk certificate at the completion of your walk. Certificates will be distributed at both ends of the bridge. Individuals under the age of 18 should have the permission of a parent or guardian to participate in the walk. Any two or more people walking together should make plans for a meeting place in the event that they become separated during the walk.

Disclaimer of liability: Before beginning the walk, all participants should carefully determine that they are physically fit and medically able to participate in the annual walk since the physical strain of the walk could lead to serious health problems. Participants should also understand that walking involves risks of injury from falls due to the surface condition of the bridge, contact with other participants, and the effects of weather including high heat and/or humidity.

The Norwalk River Railroad Bridge (also known as the Walk Bridge) is a swing bridge built in 1896 for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. It currently carries Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad trains over the Norwalk River.

In 1896, the New Haven Railroad built the bridge and widened its route to four tracks, as it simultaneously built its South Norwalk Railroad Bridge over the intersection of Washington Street with North Main and South Main streets. The 562-foot (171 m) span, with a rotating swing span 202 feet (62 m) long was provided by the Berlin Iron Bridge Co. This type of swing bridge is one of just two on the Northeast Corridor.[2] The swing span has a rim-bearing system of 96 rollers, allowing tall vessels to pass by.[3] The span is one of only 13 of the company's bridges (and one of only two railroad bridges) that survive in the state as of August 2001. In 1907, the rail line was electrified with overhead catenary wires, which form a prominent feature of the bridge today.[3] It is or was also known as Norwalk River Bridge.[2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.[1] Before 2020, the bridge had a daily traffic of 125,000 passengers and 175 trains.[4]

As a single movable span with aging mechanical mechanisms, the Norwalk River Bridge represents a frequent point of failure for Amtrak and Metro-North service and has been targeted for replacement with dual movable spans. The final design approved for the new Walk Bridge calls for a dual-span vertical-lift bridge.[5] Construction on the new bridge began on May 12, 2023,[6] and is expected to be completed in 2029.[7] Amtrak was awarded $465 million in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds in November 2023. Amtrak will contribute an additional $27 million, while the state of Connecticut will provide $87 million.[8][9]

Further improvements include the replacement of 100-year-old catenary structures, approximately 4,500 feet of track reconstruction, signal and communication upgrades, new drainage structures, slope stabilization, and a bridge replacement.

As a vital component to the busiest rail corridor in the nation, the existing Walk Bridge carries approximately 175 trains and 125,000 passengers per day. However, to enhance safety, reliability and ease of travel, the existing four-track structure is being completely replaced on the existing alignment with a new fixed-approached span and twin, 240-foot vertical-lift spans. With design services provided by HNTB, these spans will carry two tracks each and will have the ability to be operated individually in the event of a necessary track outage. In addition, the new Walk Bridge has been designed to be constructed with minimal disruption to marine navigation operations on the Norwalk River.

Prominent aesthetic features include decorative facades for the machinery room enclosures, arch designs within the tower framing, decorative railings on the exterior walkways, a three-story control house, and aesthetic lighting for the entire bridge. These design considerations were made with the involvement of local members of the Design Advisory Committee (DAC).

CTDOT proposes to replace the existing four-span Walk Bridge with a new multi-span bridge, including 240-foot dual lift spans with fixed east and west approach spans over the Norwalk River in Connecticut. Additional elements of the project include:

FRA selected CTDOT to receive funding under its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 and FY 2020 Federal-State Partnership (FSP) for State of Good Repair Grant Program toward final design and construction of the Project.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) is seeking public comment on plans to replace the aging Walk Railroad Bridge in Norwalk with a new structure. The plans, released September 6, call for a four-track movable bridge estimated to cost between $425 million and $460 million (in 2020 dollars) and take 40 months to complete.

The 120-year old Walk Bridge, a vital rail link in the northeast corridor, is at the end of its useful life. Several failures of the swing bridge in recent years have stopped train traffic for hours, inconveniencing thousands of passengers. DOT says it expects the number of failures to increase.

DOT is recommending replacing the existing bridge with a Long Span Vertical Lift Bridge, one of a number of alternatives the department considered. Depending on the availability of funding, DOT says work on the new bridge could begin in 2018. One advantage of proceeding with this type of bridge, it says, is that it would allow the current bridge to remain operational longer than would other designs.

The Walk Bridge, a swing bridge that spans the Norwalk River, carries the New Haven Line, used by Metro North and Amtrak for passenger rail service and by the Providence & Worcester Railroad for freight rail service. In 2013, the New Haven Line was the busiest single commuter rail line in the U.S. Metro North alone operates 113 daily trains between East Norwalk and New York City.

But the bridge, built in 1896, has been failing noticeably in recent years. A 2005 analysis indicated that major portions of the bridge had exceeded their lifespan and needed to be replaced. Its electrical systems are generally obsolete. DOT reports that the bridge failed 12 times out of 138 openings in 2011 and 16 times out of 271 in 2012. Without rehabilitation or replacement, the number of failures is expected to increase.

The bridge's operation is crucial to rail passengers and marine traffic. If the bridge fails in the open position, trains cannot cross; a failure when closed means that boats taller than the bridge's 16-foot vertical clearance cannot pass. A failure when partially open means neither rail nor boat traffic can move. In 2014, two widely publicized failures within weeks of each other stopped all train traffic and inconvenienced thousands of train passengers.

The proposed bridge would have two side-by-side spans that, when fully raised, will allow 60 feet of clearance for boat traffic. When lowered to allow train traffic to cross, the bridge would provide approximately 27 feet of vertical clearance, about

11 feet more than the Walk Bridge now allows. The bridge's two towers would each be between 100 and 150 feet tall. Figure 2 shows the proposed replacement bridge in the closed (for rail traffic) and open (for boat traffic) positions, respectively.

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