OLD SAYBROOK — Eight and a half inches may not sound like much. But raising a roadway by that amount and completing other work to jack up a bridge over a creek here is expected to cost the state about $3.4 million. A team of Connecticut Department of Transportation engineers came to Old Saybrook Town Hall on Thursday to explain why the agency plans to raise the bridge that carries Route 154 over Plum Bank Creek. The project, expected to take place in 2028, will force drivers to take a 4-mile detour for multiple weeks. Residents are familiar with the detour route. It’s the same one they used when the bridge was built five years ago at a cost of about $2.5 million. DOT engineers told a group of about 15 people who attended the public meeting in person at Town Hall and others online that the problem is the underside of the new bridge is lower than the old one — a difference that wasn’t flagged until after construction. Now, DOT needs to raise the structure to “restore navigational and recreational access” to the creek, or else it will be running afoul of state statute, according to the team’s presentation. “There was an oversight as far as this being navigable water,” said project manager Jonathan Kempf. “That was just missed… After it was constructed, it was brought up to us that this one was lower than existing. Then we went back, we looked at it and we saw, yes, this is lower than it should be.”

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/ct-bridge-old-saybrook-oversight-22408304.php