(The following story by Patricia Daddona appeared on The Day website on July 22, 2009.)
NEW LONDON, Conn. — The Amtrak Niantic River Bridge was working properly on Tuesday, a day after an electrical relay burned out for unknown reasons and caused the bridge to stay shut, frustrating boaters.
The bridge got stuck twice Monday morning and did not reopen for nearly 24 hours, said Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romano in a series of e-mails. The bridge was briefly stuck open at 5:24 a.m. Monday, delaying a train headed to Boston from Newport News, Va., by about 36 minutes. By 6:15 a.m. it was again stuck, this time while shut, she said.
But by Tuesday, around 5:45 a.m., the 102-year-old bridge was fixed and reopened after electricians tested relays until they found one that was burned out and replaced it.
The cause of the problem appears consistent with the effects of a lightning strike, Romero said, but there is no definitive evidence of that.
The bridge is “functioning normally,” Romano said, but acknowledged there are no guarantees about the future performance for such an old, low-clearance bridge until it is replaced. A new, planned $105 million bridge would increase the 11.5-foot height clearance by almost 5 feet, according to planning documents.
”We can’t recall an outage of this bridge of this magnitude,” she wrote.
For now, an Amtrak electrician is manually opening and closing the bridge, but Amtrak expects to do that automatically soon. Romero could not say exactly when that might be.
”There are no other mechanical or electrical issues to resolve at this time but moveable bridges of this age always require attention, “ she wrote.
Charter fishing boaters suffered the brunt of the impact.
Beth-Ann Berner and her husband run a fleet of Sunbeam fishing boats that dock at Capt. John’s Sport Fishing Center Inc. on the Waterford side of the Niantic River. The couple had to refund money to more than 30 customers for four different canceled excursions, not to mention paying hourly fees for captains to man the stranded boats, Berner said. She estimated the cost at thousands of dollars, and said she planned to file claims for reimbursement with Amtrak.
The bridge got stuck just last month, but only for a few hours, Berner said.
”Hopefully they fixed it so it will last through the summer,” said Berner, “and the bright side is, they’re going to redo the bridge and there’s going to be no more failure. We have to be optimistic here. We want people to come down here and go fishing and go on lighthouse cruises, and we don’t want the bridge to be a deterrent for us.”
Capt. Joe Devine of the Mijoy, a larger fishing vessel, said his boat goes out twice daily.
”We certainly don’t want to lose any more trips this summer,” he said.
Like the charter boat owners, pleasure boaters were philosophical about the problem.
”I’m sure all of us are hoping it doesn’t happen again,” said Patti Civittolo of Glastonbury, who owns a cottage and boat in Niantic and lost a $40 deposit at a marina in Three Mile Harbor on Long Island. “Our plans got delayed, but we made the best of the day. It’s better than going to work.”
Don MacKenzie, vice president of Boats Inc., which has 200 slips in Niantic, said his business was not badly affected, but he was concerned about the rest of the summer, particularly because the bridge is so old.
”It’s just, what is going to happen next?” he wondered. “I’m just very thankful it didn’t happen on the weekend.”
Grant Westerson, executive director of the Essex-based Connecticut Marine Trades Association, said Amtrak was responsive and got the bridge working again in a reasonable amount of time.
Amtrak has bridges in four other locations in southeastern Connecticut, on the Mystic, Connecticut and Thames rivers and in Shaw’s Cove.
”New London wants to have more Shoreline East trains,” Westerson said. “That means these bridges will be down longer and more often and open for boats more often, so that will take its toll in maintenance and wear and tear.
”We’ll keep our fingers crossed. What with what Mother Nature’s given us this year so far for weather, we don’t need any other bad breaks.”