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(Photo credit: Dana Jensen/The Day)

By Elizabeth Regan
Day Staff Writer

East Lyme ― Route 161 in the area of Interstate 95 was a flurry of activity on a recent weekday morning as the four-and-a-half-year reconstruction project that began last March entered its second stage.

The latest phase of the project was made possible by the most visible hallmark of the project to date: the months-long effort by engineers from Maine Drilling and Blasting to dislodge an 800-foot expanse of ledge on the northbound span. The last blast went off earlier this month.

By the end of 2024, the project’s senior management team said drivers can expect to see extensive overpass work, the creation of a new Exit 74 northbound on-ramp and jarring elevation changes as the roadway is leveled out in phases.

Drivers who have become accustomed to the 50 mph construction zone with narrow, shifting lanes will see the situation intensify over the coming year. Because of contractual obligations to keep two lanes open at all times, there will be instances when southbound traffic will be shifted onto northbound lanes as the overpass work is completed in three stages.

On Route 161 Wednesday morning, Resident Engineer Robert Obey of the engineering firm GM2 was stuck at a light in his pickup truck with state Department of Transportation project engineer Andrew Millovitsch. A broken sensor on the month-old Exit 74 off-ramp traffic signal was creating congestion on Flanders Road heading north.

“Andrew, this is not good,” he said. He looked on as the highway dumped two lanes of traffic onto the road where drivers had to merge to avoid a cable truck and a police detail that had closed the right lane for utility work.

The sensor, damaged in heavy rain the previous Friday, was awaiting replacement parts expected that day.

“It’s a perfect storm,” he said.

Obey emphasized the interconnected nature of the $148 million project planned in multiple phases through 2027. Utility work must happen to allow for replacement of the overpass as well as the widening and leveling of the northbound side of the highway by the end of this year. That, in turn, must be finished before the southbound side and Route 161 underneath it can be addressed.

The new northbound off-ramp was unveiled as what Obey called an “early Christmas gift” in December. This year, work will continue to focus on the northbound side.

“We’re not touching southbound,” he said.

At the busy construction zone that now sits where the old ramp was, Obey said tall piles of dirt weren’t just “junk hills.” He pointed to a surveyor with a GPS receiver standing with a drainage subcontractor on one of the mountains of infill that will eventually become the foundation for new northbound lanes rising more than a dozen feet over the existing span.

To rid the dangerous thoroughfare of the hills and valleys that currently make it hard for drivers to see ahead, the side south of the bridge will be raised more than a dozen feet while the other side will be lowered about 9 feet.

Obey said a massive temporary retaining wall to be built this year between the new off- ramp and the bridge will be the earliest manifestations of the extent of the elevation changes ahead.

“People are going to drive by, they’re going to look over and they’re going to see a 14-foot earth retaining wall that’s going to temporarily support the highway,” Obey said.

Once the retaining wall goes up and the two new lanes are constructed, northbound traffic will be traveling that much higher and about 40 feet to the side of where it flows now. He said the gradual shift won’t be noticeable for those looking ahead, though a look down at the unchanged side of the highway will leave drivers feeling like they’re 14 feet in the air.

On the other side of the bridge, crews were deep in the crevasse next to the existing northbound highway where the new, wider span will be built. They were using a rig to pound 30-foot rods at 30-degree angles into the earth with grout reinforcements for another temporary retaining wall.

“When we put traffic down here, you’re going to see these huge walls and go, ‘Wow, I’m in a hole. I’m in a big hole,’” Obey said.

The chasm was created by the blasting work that closed the highway for short intervals most weekdays since Aug. 1. The goal was to keep the closures below 20 minutes, though that didn’t always happen in the densest areas of rock.

Millovitsch said a less intensive blasting project will occur on the southbound side sometime in 2025, with brief closures expected.

The bridge

At the main construction site on Route 161, the cranes that have started to show up on trailers for work on the south side of the bridge. The engineers said installing the south half of the bridge will be the most high-profile task through the winter.

“Once that crane boom goes up in the air, it’s going to draw people’s attention,” Millovitsch said.

The cranes’ main job will be to swing 180-foot steel girders into place sometime around April, according to Millovitsch. But they will be used before that on abutment work necessary to widen the bridge about 40 feet on either side.

Obey said the main traffic impacts will come from the installation of the steel beams over two weeks. The work will require overnight closures on Route 161.

When that happens depends largely on factors including how long it takes the steel to arrive in a business climate that hasn’t fully recovered from supply chain disruptions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

While clauses in the agreement between the state and its contractors restrict major closures between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Obey said the project can’t afford any major delays.

“We have a contract, but they have the authority to change the contract at any time if it’s in the best interest of the project and the best interest of the taxpayers,” he said.

He reiterated that each major step of the project relies on completion of the one before it ― and on the vagaries of the weather. That’s why putting off the bridge work for several months could snowball into an extra year on a timeline already set to last more than four.

“Every business decision we make is one of balance,” he said. “Trying to strike a balance between being productive on the construction side and not turn the whole place into a parking lot with gridlock.”

Speed enforcement

The engineers credited the DOT’s work zone speed camera pilot program, which expired with the new year, for “changing the culture” of speeding on the interstate in East Lyme.

“Speeds are definitely down,” Obey said. “The vast majority of drivers are sensitive to the speeds through the work zone.”

The local roll-out of the DOT’s Know The Zone pilot program on June 5 brought SUVs equipped with cameras to snap pictures of vehicles going more than 15 mph over the limit. The first violation came with a warning directed to the registered owner of the vehicle, while the second came with a $75 ticket. Subsequent violations cost $150 each.

DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said the agency is writing a report and drafting a bill proposal to continue the work zone speed camera program. It’s up to lawmakers to decide if the pilot program authorized to last through 2023 should become permanent. The upcoming session of the state General Assembly begins next month and adjourns May 8.

Millovitsch expressed surprise and disappointment the camera-equipped SUVs are no longer a fixture in East Lyme.

“We were lucky enough to be part of the pilot program, because it was obviously super beneficial for us,” he said. “So if they do implement a more permanent program, I’ll certainly see that we get on the list.”

Morgan said 24,875 warnings and 724 tickets were issued in the pilot program statewide. He could not provide the tally from East Lyme by press time.

He said the state spent $4 million on the pilot program.

Obey said state troopers will go back to doing speed enforcement the old-fashioned way.

“The backup plan has always been to have Connecticut State Police do active speed enforcement through the work zone,” he said. “So we would simply revert back to that.”

I-95 project continues to transform East Lyme, two lanes at a time

January 21st, 2024

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