By Donovan Wilson 

Repairs of a section of the damaged wall along a section of the Pequabuck River that abuts Memorial Boulevard looks as if it will mean taking down several of the massive and beautiful oak commemorating World War I veterans. 

“We’ve been looking for a design engineer and we’re looking to open bids tomorrow,” said Ray Rogozinski, the director of the Bristol Public Works Department, last week. 

Public Works is looking for a contractor to work on repairing the damage at the boulevard. A wall has collapsed and, subsequently, so has a section of the adjacent sidewalk.  

 Back in November, a rain storm caused extensive damage to the wall and sidewalk. The river pounded the section, eroding the bank under the wall that supported the sidewalk, which crumbled.

The project will replace as much of the wall as possible, mainly the section that has collapsed. However, repairing this damage will require disturbing the area of the wall that runs along the boulevard. This area contains a row of memorial trees which, according to Rogozinski, has been a concern to the city. These trees serve as memorials to World War I veterans. 

One tree has already come down. The trees that are slated to come down have been posted for removal to make the citizens aware of what’s happening. However, an arborist from UConn will be brought in to look at the trees to see what can be salvaged and what can’t, Rogozinski said.  

“We are working with consultants to find alternatives and ultimately looking at what sections of the wall have to be replaced,” said Rogozinski. 

A major part of the project is figuring out which parts of the wall that hasn’t been damaged will have to be replaced. That will then determine how much work has to be done now and if any work needs to be deferred to a later date, Rogozinski said.

However, there is a push is to have the main repairs done before the centennial celebrations as Memorial Boulevard turns 100 this year, the director said. 

These repairs could potentially lead to the closing of the westbound section of the boulevard. The bridge at the eastern end of Memorial Boulevard is also being repaired and that will require the closing of the westbound and eastbound sections. The majority of all this work will be done in the summer.  

The Public Works is working with the Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services Department, as well, while in the evaluation stage to determine the impact of the potential work to be done on the wall damage.  

“Public works is primarily working on resolving it and they have been a great partner in this and making sure it gets repaired productively,” Sarah Larson, deputy superintendent of the Parks department.

Larson said the significance of preserving these trees more in depth and went on to describe that these trees exist on either side of where the wall collapsed. There are a total of 47 of these trees currently. 

“We maintain those trees so if trees die, we do replace them and as residents can see, the trees are of various ages,” said Larson. 

The Parks department’s biggest role here is making note of which trees must be replaced and going through the process of getting these trees replaced. This is not the first time such a thing has had to be evaluated, Larson said, that this is why a lot of the trees are of varying ages.  

Both Parks and Public Works departments emphasized the main end goal being that they want to work with the contractors to do whatever will ensure no future damage to the wall, the sidewalk, the memorial trees and anything else in the surrounding area.

Donovan Wilson is a recent graduate of Southern Connecticut State University, where he studied journalism.