If you crossed the Cribari Bridge this week on the way to dinner on Riverside Avenue, did it feel like the bridge's future was still up for debate? Most of the talk around town still treats it as a choice between restoring the old swing span and building a new one. The state settled that question in February. The deadline coming up on Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, asks something narrower: what the replacement has to protect along Bridge Street.
That shift changes the question the next eight days are about. The decision still open is about stone walls, vibration monitoring and the setting of a 19th-century neighborhood. The bridge's basic shape is mostly decided.
The design question moved in February
The Connecticut Department of Transportation's February 2026 Environmental Assessment and Environmental Impact Evaluation for State Project 158-214 names the "On-Alignment Bridge Replacement Alternative" as its preferred option. That means a new movable bridge in the same location, with the existing span removed. The public comment period on that environmental document closed on Friday, April 17, 2026, according to CTDOT's project engagement page.
Here are the numbers that matter, set against the bridge as it stands:
| Today's span | CTDOT's preferred alternative | |
|---|---|---|
| Roadway clearance | Posted at 12 ft 7 in | Minimum of 16 ft 3 in, per design standards |
| Weight | 20-ton limit | Built to current bridge load standards |
| Travel lanes | Two lanes, carrying about 13,100 vehicles a day | Lanes 10 to 12 ft wide |
| Bikes and pedestrians | Shared roadway | 4 to 5 ft bike path or shoulder, plus a 5 ft 6 in sidewalk on the north side |
| During construction | Not applicable | About three years, with traffic carried on a temporary bridge |
The clearance row is the one people around town come back to. Today's 12 ft 7 in posting physically limits what can cross. The EA says the new design would remove the old bridge's height and weight constraints. It does not set a truck prohibition, and it does not decide which trucks would use the new span. The EA also notes that final dimensions had not yet been developed. During construction, boats on the Saugatuck River could face restrictions, including possible short-term partial or full closures of the navigation channel.
Why the remaining window is about Bridge Street
The bridge doesn't stand alone in the historic record. It has been individually listed on the National Register since February 12, 1987, and it is also a contributing element of the Bridge Street Historic District. Because the bridge holds both listings, the project also goes through a federal historic review known as Section 106, as 06880 describes it. That review still has a comment window open after the environmental review closed.
In a November 8 essay on 06880, longtime Bridge Street resident and former Westport teacher Werner Liepolt describes the district as about 22.46 acres. It holds 28 contributing buildings and three contributing structures, the bridge among them. One of those buildings is the original Bridge Street School. It later became Saugatuck Elementary and is now The Saugatuck co-op housing. Liepolt's essay points to the Orlando Allen House from 1886. It also names the stone walls, the roadway and the setting itself as parts of one connected place.
According to 06880, the extended Section 106 deadline of November 27 was communicated by Melissa Levy, who chairs the RTM's Cribari Bridge subcommittee. The same post explains how comments are submitted:
- Email [email protected] and copy [email protected].
- Use the subject line "Project 0158-0214 – Section 106 Mitigation Request – [your address]".
- To send by mail instead, address it to James Barrows, Connecticut Department of Transportation, 2800 Berlin Turnpike, P.O. Box 317546, Newington, CT 06131-7546.
The 06880 piece suggests each comment name a historic feature, explain how the project could affect it, and ask for a specific measure to avoid, minimize or mitigate that effect. Its examples include protecting stone walls, monitoring construction vibration and evaluating traffic-related changes to the district's setting. It also suggests asking that agreed protections be written into the project's Memorandum of Agreement, with responsibility and timing spelled out. The district's National Register nomination and property inventory are posted on the town's website, and CTDOT keeps project documents at portal.ct.gov/Cribari-Bridge. This is general information about a public process and isn't legal advice. Confirm deadlines and requirements directly with CTDOT.
CTDOT also scheduled a project update meeting for its advisory committee at the Town Hall auditorium for Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m.
What the RTM has asked for, and what its new subcommittee will do
Two RTM actions this year sound alike but do different things. On March 3, the RTM passed a "sense of the meeting" resolution by a vote of 20 to 1, with four abstentions, as Westport Journal reported. It called for the bridge to be restored, rehabilitated or replaced as soon as practical while keeping its historic design. It also asked for pedestrian and bike lanes and a height restriction to keep tractor-trailers off. That resolution states the RTM's position. It doesn't set state policy.
The second action came on October 27. That day the RTM Transit Committee formed an 11-member Cribari Bridge subcommittee. In Westport Journal's account, its chair described the job as reviewing existing information, identifying questions that need research, and looking at effects on roads, neighborhoods, businesses, emergency access and pedestrian safety. Choosing between rehabilitation and replacement, the design, or truck policy is outside that charge. The subcommittee's focus on neighborhood effects lines up with what Section 106 comments can address.
The blocks the bridge feeds
The neighborhood effects come down to specific addresses. When Restaurant Week ran October 4 through 18, Westport Journal's participant list included a run of Saugatuck spots within walking distance of the bridge. Rive Bistro is at 299 Riverside Avenue and Kawa Ni at 19A Bridge Square. Rizzutto's Oyster Bar & Restaurant is at 540 Riverside, Viva Zapata at 530 Riverside and The Boathouse at Saugatuck at 521 Riverside. Tutti's Ristorante is at 599 Riverside and Zucca Gastrobar at 30 Charles Street. Near the station, the list included Tarantino Restaurant & Bar at 30 Railroad Place, Blu Olive at 36 Railroad Place and Romanacci Westport Train Station at 46 Railroad Place. Little Pub at Dunville's at 41 Saugatuck Avenue was on it too.
These are the same blocks that filled up on October 3. Rain had pushed the Slice of Saugatuck back a week, and it went ahead that day with tastings, music, children's activities and merchant giveaways along Riverside Avenue, Railroad Place and Saugatuck Avenue, 06880 reported.
Riverside Avenue has a second filing working its way through Town Hall. Spinnaker Real Estate Partners has applied to build a six-story rental building at 606 Riverside Avenue. The plan has 142 apartments, down from 165 units as of August, plus 3,838 square feet for three merchant spaces along Riverside, according to Westport Journal. The application sets aside 10% of the units as affordable housing and another 10% as workforce housing. It also lists 241 garage parking spaces. The 1.5-acre site now holds an auto repair shop, a laundry, a parking garage and a locksmith. It is part of the land where the Hamlet at Saugatuck had been planned. When the paper reported the filing in October, Planning and Zoning Director Michelle Perillie was reviewing it and no hearing had been scheduled.
Over the next few years, two state and local processes will touch the same half mile of Riverside Avenue and Bridge Street. The temporary bridge planned for construction is meant to keep cars and pedestrians crossing the river the whole time. For now, the swing span still opens only when a boat requests it. A CTDOT attendant comes out, since the bridge isn't regularly staffed, and a normal opening and closing takes about 20 minutes.
After the deadline, December starts across the river
Westport's December calendar picks up a few days after the comment window closes. The town community calendar lists the Town Hall Tree Lighting for December 3 at 5 p.m. The same night, Christine Ebersole performs with Billy Stritch at Westport Country Playhouse at 8 p.m. The Westport Downtown Association's sixth annual Holiday Stroll is set for Saturday, December 5, from 4 to 7 p.m. "A Sherlock Carol" runs at the Playhouse December 12 through 20. Before then, Lachat Town Farm hosts a Thanksgiving feast at noon on November 26, the day before the bridge comments are due.
If you own a home near Bridge Street or Riverside Avenue and want to understand how years of bridge construction and a pending Riverside filing could affect the property, I'm glad to go through the public documents with you. Tom Flynn is here when you want that conversation. Let's Connect.
