SLR receives two Merit Awards from ACEC of Connecticut

On Tuesday, June 20th, SLR proudly accepted two 2023 Engineering Excellence Merit Awards from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Connecticut (ACEC-CT) for two of our recently completed transportation projects. The projects recognized at the event were the Replacement of Nonnewaug Road Bridge (Bethlehem, CT) and the Summer Street Pedestrian Safety Improvement Project (Stamford, CT). SLR’s Kwesi Brown, Shelley Plude, Marc Mancini, Tory Sidoti, Julie Maru, and Dennis Quinit attended the awards ceremony. Both the Nonnewaug Road Bridge and Summer Street Pedestrian Safety Improvement projects were recognized for their innovative and creative approaches and solutions that resulted in impactful results for our clients.

About the projects

Nonnewaug Road bridge replacement

The Town of Bethlehem, CT contracted with SLR to provide design and construction inspection services to replace the existing Nonneawug Road bridge over East Spring Brook. The existing bridge was too narrow by current standards, presenting a safety issue for the travelling public. The bridge immediately abuts an active farming operation which utilizes the bridge daily. The narrow width of the bridge in combination with the alignment of the roadway meant that the large farm equipment would need to encumber both travel lanes to cross. The existing bridge was undersized and out of alignment with East Spring Brook resulting in scour and flooding of the low-lying property upstream.

The new bridge is a 32-foot precast concrete arch with precast foundations on a new alignment with roughly 600 feet of roadway reconstruction, timber and metal beam guide rail, drainage improvements, and three driveway relocations. The new bridge spans the entire watercourse and conveys the 100-year design storm and prevents flooding of the adjacent property. Special attention was paid to the architectural treatments of the new bridge given its visibility. Since its completion, the new bridge has been embraced by the community.

Summer Street Pedestrian Safety Improvements

SLR was retained by the City of Stamford for the design of pedestrian safety improvements along Summer Street in downtown Stamford at four key intersections: Hoyt Street, North Street, Broad Street, and Main Street. Summer Street is a busy arterial corridor with one of the highest crash rates within the city and was recently the site of a tragic pedestrian fatality. The improvements were designed to provide increased pedestrian visibility to motorists, provide larger pedestrian refuge areas, reduce pedestrian crossing distances and enhance the overall walkability as well as the social and economic vitality of the corridor through placemaking.

The project designs included installation of new curb extensions(“bump-outs”), streetscape enhancements, colored thermoplastic crosswalks, and the implementation of Lead Pedestrian Interval traffic signal phasing and illuminated Yield to Pedestrian/No Turn on Red overhead signs.