Rep. Courtney and First Selectman Hanson Highlight Upcoming Repairs to the Forge Hill Road Bridge, Funded by the IIJA

NORWICH, CT — Today, Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) and First Selectman Tracey Hanson (Voluntown) met up to highlight the announcement of a long-awaited local infrastructure project: repairs and upgrades to the 101-year-old Fort Hill Road Bridge in Voluntown. The bridge was recently slated for repair work thanks to newly increased infrastructure funding for Connecticut under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The Forge Hill Road Bridge is currently considered a “non-conforming” bridge by the CT Department of Transportation (DOT), putting it at risk for total closure.  Although the repair project has long been on the CT DOT’s “to-do” list, a lack of funding at the state and local levels has kept the project from moving forward—until now.

Rep. Courtney voted to pass the IIJA in November 2021, and it’s supplying the State of Connecticut with increased infrastructure funding over the next 4 years to help complete a wide range of projects—including more than $112 million for bridge repair in 2022. With IIJA funding now in place, work on the Forge Hill Road Bridge is expected to begin in 2024. The total estimated cost of the project is approximately $2.6 million, with federal IIJA funding covering 80% of the total cost, and state funding covering the remaining 20%.

“The Forge Hill Bridge might look small, but the cost of replacing it was a large burden for our small town,” said First Selectman Tracey Hanson. “The 80% federal, and 20% state funding we are receiving relieves our residents of a tax burden that could have been felt for years.”

“I voted to pass the new Infrastructure Law last November, and over the course of 2022 we’ve seen work in eastern Connecticut getting seriously dialed-up,” said Rep. Courtney. “Some are big, high-profile projects like the Gold Star Bridge in Groton-New London, or the Swing Bridge in East Haddam, but for small towns like Voluntown, repairs to the ‘non-conforming’ 100-year-old Forge Hill Bridge are the sort of long-term investments that really pay dividends for our towns and our local economy. We rely on infrastructure like this for all sorts of commerce and movement of goods and people, but when our oldest bridges are in need of repair it can often prove too costly for our towns to take on by themselves. That was the case with the Forge Hill Road Bridge project—it’s been on the ‘to-do’ list for a long time, and it was coming close to closure due to needed repair work. Thanks to the IIJA, that’s not going to happen. The Infrastructure bill is now fueling 80% of this project, resulting in real local jobs, a serious investment in our local economy, and now at no cost to the Town of Voluntown. It’s great to see our region continuing to thrive.”

Originally built in 1921, the 101-year-old Forge Hill Road Bridge is currently considered “non-conforming” by CT DOT, putting it at risk for total closure. A lack of funding has kept the project out of reach for the Town of Voluntown and for CT DOT, until Rep. Courtney and the U.S. Congress voted to pass the IIJA. Now, with plussed up infrastructure funding—including $112 million for bridge repair this year in 2022—long-awaited repairs to the Forge Hill Road Bridge are slated to take place from 2024-2025.

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