The two towers over the Norwalk River stood 234 feet tall. The towers that replace them will be about 150 feet, roughly 100 feet shorter, and they won't go up for years. Between those two heights, East Norwalk and South Norwalk now live by a construction calendar. Early November is a good time to learn how it works, because two more station closures are still coming this month.
For about 130 years the towers were part of the view from Washington Street, Veterans Park and every train crossing the river. They carried the overhead wires that power trains across the WALK Bridge, the swing span that carries the Northeast Corridor over the Norwalk River. The way they came down shows how the rest of this project will run. The work happens in short, scheduled windows, and the schedule is built around the trains.
Two Weekends in October
CTDOT scheduled the high-tower work for two weekends, Oct. 10–11 and Oct. 17–18, and cut weekend Metro-North service on both. Westfair Business Journal reported that removal began on Oct. 10. By late October, the project's own site said crews had spent "the last two weekends" removing the 130-year-old towers.
Those service cuts were the price of doing the work. In its statement on the weekend schedules, CTDOT said the changes were "necessary to allow crews to safely remove two 234-foot-tall utility towers and overhead wire systems," and called the work "a major milestone" in the replacement program. Riders were steered to the Stamford station garages during the reduced-service weekends, because trains still ran fully between Stamford and New York.
Mayor Barbara Smyth marked the change at a Sept. 9 press conference. As Coastal Connecticut Times reported, she said the towers "have stood as part of Norwalk's skyline and as a symbol of the bridge that has connected our community."
A Swing Span That Wouldn't Always Swing
The bridge is being replaced for a mechanical reason. A swing bridge pivots sideways to let boats through and then has to lock back into place exactly so trains can cross. The WALK Bridge often failed at that step. CTDOT's 2016 environmental assessment counted the times it failed to open or close properly in a timely manner.
| Year | Openings | Failures | Roughly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 138 | 12 | 1 in 11 openings |
| 2013 | 271 | 16 | 1 in 17 openings |
The 2014 failures are the best-known ones. The Stamford Advocate reported that a gear jammed on May 29 of that year and left the bridge stuck open for six hours. On June 10 the same gear fell off, and train traffic was disrupted again. The stakes go well beyond Norwalk. At the September press conference, State Sen. Bob Duff said that "any disruption on the Northeast Corridor equates to over $100 million per day in our regional economy," according to Coastal Connecticut Times.
One Hundred Feet Lower
The replacement uses a different kind of mechanism. It is a vertical lift bridge, which raises its deck straight up between two towers to let boats pass instead of swinging sideways. Each tower will be about 150 feet tall. Officials say the design will let the bridge "be more resilient and withstand extreme weather, load, and external forces."
For anyone who looks at the river every day, the change in height matters as much as the change in mechanism. The structure that has marked the mouth of the Norwalk River for over a century will be about 100 feet shorter. The bridge will also have a different shape, two lift towers in place of a pivoting span. The whole program costs nearly $1 billion. It falls under the state's Time for CT initiative, which aims to shorten travel between Connecticut and New York City.
The new skyline will take time. According to the project FAQ, crews start dismantling the existing bridge once the high towers are gone, and the lift bridge and its approach spans come in later phases. No dates have been published yet for removing the swing span or putting up the new towers. The target for opening the new bridge is 2030. CTDOT repeated that date in September. For several years, the view toward the river will be a construction site, with neither the old outline nor the new one.
East Norwalk Station Has Its Own Schedule
A companion project called TIME-2 is rebuilding East Norwalk station, and its closures are the part of the program most likely to affect a weekend this month.
The station project page lists what's being built:
- Platforms on both sides extended to fit six-car trains
- New platform canopies
- ADA accessibility
- Parking lot improvements
- A dedicated drop-off lane
Construction started in March 2024 and is described as roughly a four-year job. Counting forward from the start date puts completion around 2028, though no exact finish date has been given. The work runs in phases, starting on the station's north side and then moving to the south side. Norwalk Current reported in late September that workers were cutting pavement for utility work while others worked on the tracks and platforms.
The project scheduled three weekend closures for this stretch:
- Oct. 31–Nov. 1. The first of the three, with trains back on Monday, Nov. 2.
- Nov. 7–8. No trains stop at East Norwalk. Service resumes with the first trains on Monday, Nov. 9.
- Nov. 14–15. Same arrangement, with service back on Monday, Nov. 16.
During closures, there's no parking on the north side of the station, and East Norwalk permits are honored at the commuter lot at 182 East Avenue. The project notes that construction schedules can change because of weather or other conditions. One page on the project site still gives an earlier end date for the closures than the homepage does, so check the homepage notice before planning a Saturday trip into the city.
The roads around the work change every week. The bulletin for the week of Oct. 26 listed East Avenue shifted to the west side of the roadway, with a pedestrian detour along Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street. It also listed Osborne Avenue closed at the railroad bridge for three days and North Water Street closed between Marshall Street and Washington Street for a morning. Work at the bridge itself runs 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. A new bulletin comes out each week, and the project's construction activities map shows closures by location.
The River Stays Open, One Channel at a Time
Boaters face the longest timeline. A U.S. Coast Guard Local Notice to Mariners dated Sept. 30 describes construction at the bridge continuing through Dec. 31, 2030. Work boats and barges will occupy one channel at a time while the other stays open, with Marine Police assistance and signs directing traffic. The same notice listed weekend windows when the bridge could stay closed to boats during the tower work, the last running from Oct. 30 until 6 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 2. Vessels low enough to pass under the closed bridge could still go through. The current weekly bulletin lists partial river closures east and west of the channel. Anyone taking a boat up toward the Wall Street area or SoNo next season should expect to share the river with barges.
So the towers are gone, and nothing has replaced them yet. Until the lift bridge opens, everyday life near the river runs on the project's weekly bulletin. That means which weekends East Norwalk station is closed, which roads have detours, and which half of the channel is open.
The WALK Bridge is the biggest change to Norwalk's waterfront in generations. I follow its progress closely, from the shorter towers to the six-car platforms, because projects like this shape how the city's riverfront neighborhoods feel to live in for years. If you'd like to talk through what the coming phases mean for your part of Norwalk, Rowayton or Shorehaven, Emily Gordon is glad to share what she's watching. Let's Connect.
