Norridgewock could have decision on concrete bridge by month's end
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
NORRIDGEWOCK — The Federal Highway Administration could hand down a decision on how to address safety issues at the historic concrete covered bridge by the end of the month.
That decision would be a breakthrough in the long effort to find a way to fix hazards plaguing the four-span bridge that carries Route 8 and Route 201A over the Kennebec River.
The bridge is too narrow for modern trucks, and heavy concrete supports at its north end block visibility for turning traffic.
The bridge is also a historic structure as the largest of only three surviving reinforced concrete arch bridges built in Maine between 1926 and 1928.
Mark Hasselmann, transportation specialist at the Federal Highway Administration, said he hoped to have a decision on the bridge by the end of the month.
In making a decision, Hasselmann said his agency has to consider rehabilitating the existing bridge and building a new structure at another location, and if there is no feasible and prudent alternative to replacing the bridge, how to mitigate the loss of the historic resource.
"We have to look at many, many issues," Hasselmann said. "It is a very difficult balancing act."
Complicating the effort to fix the bridge is the fact that not only is the bridge a historic structure, but it is surrounded by historic homes and buildings.
Removing the bridge would constitute one type of historic impact, but keeping it in place and building a new structure next to it could also affect nearby sites.
Federal law requires that bridge projects avoid affecting historic resources unless there is no feasible or prudent alternative. The federal government provides about 80 percent of funding for bridge replacement.
Duane A. Scott, said the decision by the Federal Highway Administration is a "key step" in the process of addressing the bridge issues.
A report on the bridge released last year outlined a series of alternatives ranging from spending $641,000 to maintain the bridge for another 10 years to spending $10.9 million on a new, wider bridge that incorporates the arches of the existing structure.
Another option called for rehabilitating the existing bridge for one-way traffic and building a parallel bridge to carry traffic in the other direction.
The Department of Transportation has set aside $750,000 for preliminary engineering and right of way acquisition for improvements to the bridge in its 2004-05 transportation improvement budget.
Alan Crowell — 474-9534, Ext. 342
acrowell@centralmaine.com