Some major resiliency projects could be on the way for southwestern Connecticut. Governor Dannel Malloy announced this week that the Connecticut Department of Transportation is applying for $600 million in federal transportation funding that would be divided among three key components of the state’s transportation infrastructure:

Walk Bridge Replacement Project  ConnDOT is applying for $349 million to pay for the bulk of the cost of replacing the Walk Bridge in Norwalk. The Walk Bridge is a “balky” 118-year-old swing bridge on the Northeast Corridor which “has experienced increased deterioration since its construction.” The State would replace the Walk Bridge with “a more resilient bascule bridge.”

New Haven Line communications and signaling  ConnDOT is also seeking $245 million to fund the replacement of communications and signaling equipment on Metro-North’s much-maligned New Haven Line. According to the governor’s press release, the current communications and signaling system is 35 years old and “well past its useful life, with its poor condition exacerbated by winds and flooding.”

For each of the three projects, the amounts listed would fund 75 percent of the total cost; the other 25 percent would come from State matching funds.

Governor Malloy’s announcement comes less than one month after the New Haven Line’s power supply upgrade was completed, which nearly doubled the line’s electrical capacity and provides a backup power source — something that would have come in handy last September when “a 138,000-volt feeder cable, which supplies electricity to the railroad’s overhead power lines, had failed” and stranded commuters for nearly two weeks.