"It really is the start of a dramatic change to the city of Norwalk's skyline," Connecticut Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said at a September 9 press conference in the North Water Street lot, as NancyOnNorwalk reported. One month later, the change has started. On October 10, crews began cutting the two 234-foot steel towers on the 1896 WALK Bridge into sections and lowering them to the ground, Westfair reported.
The towers stood over the Norwalk River for more than a century, but they no longer hold anything up. Every wire they supported has been taken down or moved under the riverbed. What remains is two empty steel frames. Each fall closure in SoNo and East Norwalk lines up with one step of taking that old overhead system apart.
The Wires Went First
The towers were built to carry power and rail wiring high over the river, clear of boats. The order of the work over the past year shows how that job moved elsewhere:
- Eversource moved two live 115-kilovolt power lines that used to cross above the bridge. They now run underground, beneath the streets and under the Norwalk River. Eversource's Wayne Gagnon said that work spanned nine years.
- Rail power and signal systems were also rerouted under the riverbed. That left 31 cables between the towers, nine miles of wire in all, and crews had to remove them before the towers could come down.
- The wire demolition happened on the weekends of September 12–13 and 19–20. With no overhead power through the work zone, Metro-North ran diesel trains about every 90 minutes, and the MTA said riders had about 55% fewer seats than on a normal weekend.
- Before Columbus Day weekend, a project update on walkbridgect.com said the decommissioned wires were completely removed and that taking down the structures would start that weekend and continue the next.
So the steel coming down now is the last piece of a system the bridge has already stopped using. That is also why October weekends are easier for riders than September ones were.
Cut in Sections, Lowered to the Ground
The towers are too tall to come down in one piece, so crews cut them into sections and lower each one. Train service runs at reduced levels so the work can happen during scheduled outages. According to the MTA, electric trains keep running through the work zone during the tower weekends. The MTA planned about five trains in each work window on October 10–11 and October 17–18, with roughly 30% fewer seats than a normal weekend. That is a much smaller cut than September's 55%.
On those weekends, main-line trains run between Grand Central and South Norwalk, a shuttle train runs between Bridgeport and New Haven, and Grand Central–New Haven trains run less often. Local service between Grand Central and Stamford is unchanged except for one Saturday-morning train. The state is offering free weekend parking at the Stamford Transportation Center and the South Norwalk garage. Metro-North President Justin Vonashek said Monday morning commutes will not be affected.
The state has announced five reduced-service weekends between September 12 and November 1, plus two backup weekends in case of bad weather. CTDOT's release gives dates for only four of the five, so check the schedule on mta.info before any weekend trip through November 1.
North Water Street on Removal Weekends
The towers stand over North Water Street, so it takes the most street closures. These are the dates the project and Westfair have published, and the project notes that all of them can change:
- October 9–14 and October 16–18: North Water Street is closed between Marshall Street and Washington Street from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and again from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
- Weekends, Friday through Monday, through November 2: The same block is closed, generally with one sidewalk open to pedestrians, according to Westfair's October 12 report.
- The October 9 weekend was stricter. The project's Facebook notices said sidewalks were closed and there was no through sidewalk passage except for local businesses. Business access in front of Iron Works stayed open.
Several places sit right at the closure. Iron Works SoNo, the apartment building at 1 North Water Street, is on the closed block. El Segundo's Norwalk restaurant is at 3 North Water Street. The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk lists daily hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Its 769-space Maritime Garage sits across from the Aquarium, between Ann and Marshall Streets.
Walkers will also feel it. The Norwalk River Valley Trail's Harbor Loop starts at the Washington Street Bridge next to the Aquarium, and the trail description warns that construction may affect pedestrian access. The Sheffield Island ferry is not affected. The Norwalk Seaport Association's 2026 weekend ferry season ran May 23 to August 30, and its sunset cruises ended September 6.
East Norwalk Shares the Same Calendar
East Norwalk Station is a separate project, part of CTDOT's TIME-2 work, but its current closure runs through the same weeks. No trains are stopping there in either direction from September 26 through October 18. During the closure:
- East Norwalk parking permits are honored at the commuter lot at 182 East Avenue, and the station's north-side lot is closed.
- On weekdays only, the free Norwalk Transit Route 5 runs between East Norwalk and South Norwalk. Riders board at Winfield and East Avenue, show a Metro-North pass, and get off at the lower level of SoNo station on the New York-bound side.
- Westport Station is the other nearby option.
This closure is one of four planned three-week closures during roughly four years of construction that began in March 2024. When the work is done, the station will have two platforms long enough for six-car trains, new canopies, and a dedicated drop-off lane.
The road work around the station continues this week. On weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., East Avenue traffic shifts to the west side for drainage work. Pedestrians follow a detour up Gregory Boulevard and Cemetery Street to the west-side sidewalk. East Avenue is also closed at Fort Point Street each weeknight from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Cemetery Street reopened after its late-September closure, fully paved and with new lane markings and pedestrian crossings.
The River Side of the Removal
Lowering steel over a navigable river affects boats too. The Coast Guard's Local Notice to Mariners lists weekend windows, from 10 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday, when the bridge may stay closed to boats. The remaining windows in the September 30 notice are October 16–19, October 23–26 and October 30–November 2, and the notice labels some of its October windows as backup dates. The current notice will show which ones are in use. Boats low enough to pass under the closed bridge can still go through. Through December 31, 2030, barges will work in one channel at a time while the other stays open, with help from the Norwalk Marine Police.
River traffic is also the reason the bridge is being replaced. Vonashek said the swing span opened more than 40 times in 2025, and each opening shuts all four tracks until the bridge locks back into place. Eucalitto listed its failures: 12 in 2011, 16 in 2013, and two within two weeks in 2014, despite a rehabilitation in 1990. Before 2020, the bridge carried about 175 trains and 125,000 passengers a day.
A Skyline About 100 Feet Lower
The replacement is a dual-span vertical lift bridge. Instead of swinging sideways, its spans will rise straight up to let boats through. Coastal Connecticut Times reports that its lift towers will be 150 feet tall on each side, about 100 feet shorter than the 234-foot towers coming down now. The power lines the old towers once held above the water now run beneath the river.
CTDOT says the lift bridge and its approach spans will be built in later phases, and service on the new bridge is expected to start in 2030. At the September press conference, Eucalitto said more than 250 workers were on the job. The project lists work at the bridge 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday. "For so long, these towers have stood as part of Norwalk's skyline," Mayor Barbara Smyth said at the September press conference, NancyOnNorwalk reported. The project's construction cameras and weekly notices at walkbridgect.com are the best way to follow each step.
If you own near the river in SoNo or East Norwalk and wonder how a multi-year infrastructure project shows up in what buyers see and ask about, Kate Cacciatore can talk it through with you privately, with the timeline above in hand. Request a Confidential Home Valuation.