Standing on the Mill Creek Bridge outside Stuyvesant, it’s clear that nobody will be driving across it anytime soon. State Department of Transportation officials wouldn’t even let me set foot on the bridge without protective gear. “Hard hats and vests!” they announce, as they open a box of them.
After putting mine on, I walked along the bridge with a gaggle of state and local officials. Workers warned us not to stand too close to the guardrail, where large chunks of Route 9J have collapsed. The muddy water in the creek remains high, very close to street level. The road is still encrusted with mud and sand from Wednesday, when the creek overtook the bridge.
After we toured the damage, State DOT Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez stood at a podium and gave a sobering prognosis on the repairs. It will likely be weeks before the bridge is safe to use, she said. Crews will have to fix the collapsed portions of the road, and the extent of the damage to the base of the bridge is unknown. “We got to get divers in into the water to actually understand exactly how the infrastructure was impacted, the structures that support this bridge, to make sure that it’s safe before we open it up again,” she said…