Whitefield selectmen and residents will meet with representatives from the Maine Department of Transportation Tuesday night to discuss the closed Northy Bridge and the construction of a footbridge to connect Howe Road.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Whitefield Fire and Rescue Station at 24 Townhouse Road.
The single-lane bridge at Howe Road was closed indefinitely Dec. 4 because of serious deterioration, and the state has long maintained it has no plans to reopen it. Maine DOT press secretary Ted Talbot said the transportation department plans to remove the bridge this fall and has budgeted $250,000 for the project. He expects the removal to take between one-and-a-half to two months.
“We’re talking tomorrow, and we want to hear what their concerns and suggestions are,” Talbot said. “We’d like them to hear what we have to say.”
Dennis Merrill, chairman of the Whitefield Select Board, said he thinks the state is planning to remove the bridge completely, which was built about 80 years ago. He said local residents understand that reconstructing the bridge “is not economically feasible.”
“Some of the residents are missing the bridge and missing being connected to friends and family on the other side,” Merrill said. “They want a footbridge to join each side.”
Merrill said there is no town money allocated for building a footbridge over the Sheepscot River, at least not at this point, and Talbot said it was far too early to think about future construction or other scenarios.
“I think we’re going to talk about it, and we are going to work with the town,” he said. “A timetable would be discussed when any decision is made, and subsequent meetings would have to be scheduled.”
Last year, Talbot said bridges are given annual inspections and then committees decide whether the bridge needs to be rehabilitated, replaced, posted with a lower weight limit or closed. Northy Bridge’s weight limit had been reduced to 15 tons in July 2014, so the decision was made to close the bridge.
“Deterioration was such that the committee had a meeting within a few days of the inspection,” Talbot said in December. “The recommendation was to close the bridge.”
The estimated cost of replacing the bridge would be about $1.3 million, Talbot said. The transportation department didn’t consider replacing the bridge because of the minimal traffic impact.
The DOT said an average of 312 vehicles crossed the bridge daily, though many of those are the same vehicle making a round trip.
Merrill said it is a “very pretty area with a lot of recreational opportunities,” so the town is hopeful something can be done to reconnect both sides of the river.
“I really don’t know what will develop,” he said.
Jason Pafundi — 621-5663
Twitter: @jasonpafundiKJ
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