The WALK Bridge Towers Are Coming Down. Most of the Hard Work Already Happened Underneath.

On Oct. 10, crews started cutting the two 234-foot steel towers on the WALK Bridge into sections and lowering them to the ground, as Westfair reported. For anyone who drives into SoNo or looks across the Norwalk River from Washington Street, this is the biggest change to the view in a generation. In the construction schedule, though, the towers come near the end of the preparation. Most of what had to happen before they could come down has already been done, much of it underground or underwater, and the work still ahead for Norwalk is a short list.

Nine Years of Work Under the River

Taking down the towers took years of setup. Two live 115-kilovolt power lines once ran across the river above the bridge. Eversource moved them underground through the streets and under the Norwalk River, work that supported more than 150 union jobs over nine years, according to Wayne Gagnon, Eversource's director of transmission project management and construction, speaking at the Sept. 9 press event covered by the Norwalk Current. He said the electric service around the bridge stayed reliable throughout. Before any steel could come down, crews also had to remove 31 cables strung between the towers, about nine miles of wire in total.

The rail work started even earlier. The Ann Street bridge was finished in August 2019. In November 2023 the Danbury Branch Dockyard project wrapped up, adding two tracks and replacing the Ann Street rail-bridge superstructure. Those tracks let trains that end at South Norwalk turn around and head back.

Some changes from the program don't look like bridge work at all. According to the WALK Bridge community benefits page, the Maritime Aquarium got upgraded exhibits, and its IMAX theater was replaced by a 4D theater built just north of the Aquarium in 2021. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum got an exhibit on Norwalk's railroad history, and the historic fence around the property was restored, also finished in 2021. If you've seen a show at the Aquarium's 4D theater, you've already used something the bridge project paid for.

What the Towers Were Holding Up

The towers have marked the skyline for so long that it's easy to forget what they did. They belong to the 1896 swing span, the oldest movable bridge still standing on the Northeast Corridor, which carries about 175 trains and 125,000 passengers a day, according to CTDOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto.

The old bridge's trouble is in how often it moves and how often it breaks. Metro-North President Justin Vonashek said the bridge opened more than 40 times in 2025, and each opening stops all four tracks until the span locks back in place. Eucalitto listed the failures since the last rehabilitation in 1990: 12 in 2011, 16 in 2013, and two within a single two-week stretch in 2014. Both men were quoted in the Norwalk Current's coverage.

The new bridge is a dual-span vertical lift design, and its lift towers will stand about 100 feet shorter than the ones coming down. Eucalitto called the removal "the start of a dramatic change to the city of Norwalk's skyline," and Mayor Barbara Smyth said, "While there is certainly history in what we are saying goodbye to today, there is also immense excitement about what comes next." The skyline will still have towers. They'll just be shorter.

Here's how the work lines up on the calendar.

The Disruption Left This Fall Has a Map

The weekend train cuts are the part of this fall that most people have felt. The state scheduled five weekends with reduced service between Sept. 12 and Nov. 1, according to CTDOT. The two September weekends were the hardest. With the old catenary wire coming down, diesel trains ran about every 90 minutes through the work zone, and the MTA estimated about 55% fewer seats than a normal weekend. The October tower weekends, Oct. 10-11 and Oct. 17-18, kept electric trains running during set work windows with about 30% fewer seats. Eucalitto also said two extra weekends were held in reserve in case of bad weather, so the last affected weekend could still move. Before any weekend trip, check MTA alerts or the TrainTime app.

On work weekends, Metro-North runs trains from Grand Central to South Norwalk, express to Stamford and local from Stamford to South Norwalk, plus a shuttle between Bridgeport and New Haven. Local service between Grand Central and Stamford isn't affected except for one Saturday-only morning train. CTDOT offers free parking at the Stamford Transportation Center on these weekends, and extra paid parking is available at the South Norwalk Parking Garage. Vonashek said Monday morning commutes would not be affected.

East Norwalk riders had it worst. The station closed from Sept. 26 to Oct. 18. Permits were honored at the 182 East Avenue commuter lot during the closure, and Norwalk Transit ran extra Wheels Route 5 service. The station reopened for first trains on Oct. 19.

The road closures shift from week to week. The project's bulletin for the week of Oct. 19 listed these:

• East Avenue: Drainage work on Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with East Avenue traffic shifted to the west side of the road. Pedestrians follow a detour north along Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street to the west-side sidewalk.
• East Avenue at Fort Point Street: Closed weeknights from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., with a posted detour.
• Osborne Avenue: Closed at the railroad bridge on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Norwalk River: Partial closures east and west of the navigation channel.
• At the bridge itself: Work 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday.

For SoNo, the one to plan around is North Water Street between Washington and Marshall streets. Westfair reported that it closes every weekend, Friday through Monday, through Nov. 2, with one sidewalk left open to pedestrians. That leaves one more closure after this post goes up, Friday, Oct. 30, through Monday, Nov. 2. The project publishes current closures on its construction news page and its activities map. Questions go to the project team at 1-833-462-9255 or [email protected], and the program offers translation for people who speak Spanish or Haitian Creole.

What Comes After the Towers

Once the towers are down, crews take apart the existing bridge. The project FAQ gives the order of work but no start date. It also lists two weekend rail outages for floating the new spans into place, again without dates. Those two weekends will be the next big disruption, and nobody can put them on a calendar yet.

Eucalitto also said crews still have to upgrade several undergrade bridges and tracks on the east side of Norwalk. Together with other movable-bridge upgrades and the state's Time for CT program, the goal is to cut about 25 minutes off the trip between New Haven and New York by 2035. More than 250 workers are on the job now, and the project is still on track to finish in 2030.

The program also promises changes on the riverfront itself: wetland preservation, new bike and pedestrian trails, a new city dock, and educational panels along the river. The WALK Bridge Welcome Center runs an education program built around the bridge's engineering. The page doesn't give completion dates for the trails or the dock. For now, the scheduled items left this year are the last reduced train weekend and the last North Water Street weekend closure.

If you own near the bridge and want to talk about how four more years of construction, and a bridge that opens with less trouble, could affect your street, call or text Juan Carlos at Sunbelt Realty. He's watched this river since 1996 and keeps the construction calendar handy.