Carroll Street Bridge will close for construction

No joke: Monday, April 1 will mark the temporary closure of the Carroll Street Bridge for repairs (aka “component rehabilitation”).

The 122-year-old bridge will be closed to all car, bicycle and foot traffic for at least four months, into August, 2013. Parking will also not be permitted in the work zone area.

Eastward bound traffic will be rerouted up Bond Street to the Canal crossing on Union Street.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) will be making the following repairs:

• replacing the deteriorated timber deck;
• restoring expansion joints;
• replacing impacted stiffeners and angles and plates;
• cleaning and painting structural steel at deterioration locations;
• resetting roadway paving units at the west abutment;
• making sidewalk repairs;
• installing new timber curbs and rubber dock fenders.

The DOT reports that residents on either side of the bridge should not experience  any noise disruptions or physical danger as work will be confined to weekdays between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.  “No night or weekend work is anticipated at this time,” they wrote.

The Carroll Street Bridge was built in 1889 (for only $36,742.58!) as a retractile bridge that sits on wheels and can roll back horizontally on rails beneath. It is one of the oldest bridges in the city.