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Team 3

Team Members

Faculty Advisor

Sam Messervy
Anthony Koutsitzis
Megan Ruggieri
Jake Duggan

John Ivan

Sponsor

Town of Manchester, CT

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Spring Street at Case Mountain Improvements

The Case Mountain Recreation Area is a popular destination for outdoor recreational activities in the Town of Manchester Connecticut and located within the Case Brothers Historic District. The recreational area is accessed by the Spring Street Bridge running over Birch Mountain Brook, which is a one-lane wide bridge. Because the road is only one lane, drivers must stop at each end of the bridge and take turns crossing, which often leads to significant traffic backups. The vehicle parking for this area is located along Spring Street and consists of 14 parking spaces. The limited capacity often causes visitors to park in the parking lot of an adjacent business. Additionally, the area includes the Lower Case Mountain Dam and Waterfall and visitors can climb the stone steps on the side of the dam to reach trailheads. Besides the steps, the only other access to the trailheads is by going along Spring Street Bridge. This is not a very safe option for pedestrians since they would be walking in close proximity to the traffic. Additionally, the one-lane bridge has no space for bikers adjacent to vehicular traffic. The proposed improvements include realigning a portion of Spring Street so that it crosses a new two-lane bridge over Birch Mountain Brook, eliminating the need for the existing one-lane bridge. We have created a proposed horizontal and vertical alignment and expanded the parking lot to accompany more visitors. With the traffic being directed elsewhere, the existing bridge and roadway has been reconfigured into a dedicated pedestrian and biking path to access the top of the dam. We also identified the ideal structure type for the new bridge. To accompany these improvements, research has been done on guidelines for the Case Brothers Historic District, general permits, wetlands regulations, existing utilities, FEMA Floodplain regulations, and sediment and erosion control measures. A cost estimate has also been done to determine the project’s financial feasibility.