New guardrail to be installed on Riverwalk

by Terry Rogers

Sample of a new guardrail system that may be installed behind the Santa House on the Riverwalk

Milford City Council recently approved a request from Brad Dennehy, Director of Parks and Recreation, to install a new section of guardrail with a lighted handrail system along the Mispillion River. The section would replace current guardrail behind the Santa House along the Riverwalk.

“This has come before the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and we also had a public input session,” Dennehy said. “The existing guardrail is a post and galvanized railing system and basically we narrowed it down to two options. One is basically a vertical type of structure and was the least favorite option. The second was a stainless-steel type of structure with a cabling type of guardrail. It would prevent potentially kids falling into the river or balls falling into the river, those types of things. So, it’s a guardrail system but it is more aesthetically pleasing because you can actually look through the cabling and see the river, which is what we want to sort of showcase. So, that was the preferred type of guardrail system that the public wanted to see.”

Dennehy explained that grant money had been obtained for the new guardrail and that the city had earmarked funds to cover the cost. The project would need to be put out to competitive bid at eh state level which would include additional rules and regulations. Councilman Dan Marabello asked where the lights were located in the guardrail.

“The mounting will be in the actual top handrail itself,” Dennehy said. “The idea is to be LED lighting, be energy efficient, but it’d be lighting for pedestrians on the Riverwalk. We have lighting in the park, but the reasoning for putting lighting into the handrail was to offer greater visibility at night that isn’t going to be intrusive. We don’t want to put up search lights, so to speak. Just a nice subtle type of lighting, particularly when people come downtown, in the summertime, to the Santa House, walking between the restaurants. We just really want to take the ambiance to another level with the whole feel of the Riverwalk.”

Councilman Todd Culotta stated that he felt the new guardrail would look very good along the river and Dennehy pointed out that the new look could be a big draw for downtown, bringing a sense of the 21^st Century into downtown. Councilman Mike Boyle asked if the guardrail would eventually be added the entire length of the Riverwalk.

“I think it’s definitely going in the section between Walnut Street and Washington Street,” Dennehy said. “I think the next phase would be to move across the street from Walnut Street up towards the Second Street Players is very similar. We have the same type of guardrail system on the south side of the river, so we would like to get that replaced.

Council approved sending the new section of guardrail out for bid unanimously.