Feds Grant Town 75% of Cost to Replace Saugatuck Shores Access Bridge

The wooden bridge on Harbor Road will be replaced with 75 percent funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, federal legislators announced Tuesday.

FEMA has agreed to give the town $1,302,225 to pay 75 percent of the cost of to replace the 50-year-old timber and pile structure, with the state paying the rest of the cost. The state already has agreed to pick up the rest of the cost.

The money will pay for removing the present bridge and constructing “a galvanized truss bridge with an open-grate deck rated for emergency vehicle and heavy equipment loads,” according to a news release from U.S. Rep. Jim Himes’ office.

Himes’ announcement included a joint statement issued by him and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, which said, in part: “This joint effort by FEMA and the State will replace the wooden bridge to the island with one that can serve ambulances and first responders during the event of a future storm.”

The current bridge to Saugatuck Island isn’t the standard now used to build bridges acceptable for roads where emergency vehicles are expected to be used regularly, and during Storm Sandy it was dislodged and completely impassable by any vehicle. ”The only other entrance to the neighborhood is a low road along the canal bank that is regularly submerged by high tides and during storms,” the news release said.

“During high tides, and especially during severe storms like Sandy and Irene, our emergency vehicles can’t use either entrance into Saugatuck Island,” Westport Fire Department Chief Andrew Kingsbury said in the news release. “In the case of a fire and strong winds, which occurred so devastatingly in New York during Sandy, many homes and residents would be at risk.”

Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe said: “This grant will ensure that our emergency responders have access to the island in the immediate aftermath of any future disaster and that the residents of Saugatuck Shores are assured of on-going safe passage to and from their homes.”