NORTHBOROUGH — A bridge on Whitney Street will be closed after the town was informed of safety concerns. The Select Board voted on the closure during its Oct. 20 meeting.The bridge, which is near SA Farms, is owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), which inspects all the bridges in town on a cyclical basis, said Director of the Department of Public Works Scott Charpentier. When the bridge was last inspected in 2018, the beams had “exposed strands and rusting,” said Charpentier.Since ...
NORTHBOROUGH — A bridge on Whitney Street will be closed after the town was informed of safety concerns. The Select Board voted on the closure during its Oct. 20 meeting.
The bridge, which is near SA Farms, is owned by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), which inspects all the bridges in town on a cyclical basis, said Director of the Department of Public Works Scott Charpentier. When the bridge was last inspected in 2018, the beams had “exposed strands and rusting,” said Charpentier.
Since then, the weight restriction for the bridge was limited to 6 tons by MassDOT. Municipal vehicles had an exemption that allowed them to cross the bridge.
An inspection in February found the bridge’s strands to be broken, meaning a part of the bridge has “no weight bearing capacity whatsoever,” said Charpentier. He added that he was informed of the bridge’s condition by the state in early October.
The Select Board voted unanimously to close the bridge and put additional signage for trucks and other vehicles to find alternative routes. Currently, MassDOT is waiting for official notification from the Federal Highway Administration for a timeline to close the bridge, said Charpentier. The town expects the notification to come “relatively soon,” he told the Community Advocate.
The board considered multiple options regarding the bridge and traffic, including lifting a heavy vehicle restriction on Whitney Street or allowing one lane of traffic on the bridge with a 3 ton limit — if permitted by the federal government.
“I am nowhere comfortable on lifting a truck exclusion that’s been there for 13 years on a road that the residents don’t even know that this is happening,” said Select Board member Jacob Jones.
“It’s a challenging area, it really is,” Charpentier said.
Bill Pierce, chair of the Traffic Safety Committee, said the committee has not done a traffic study on how many trucks utilize the bridge and the area around it to access local farms and other businesses. The committee has deliberated what to do about the bridge for about three months, Pierce said.
According to Charpentier, while the bridge will be closed, it doesn’t make it a “high priority matter” for the state when it comes to repairs. The work is expected to take a few years to complete.
“Not everything we do is going to be popular, but it might be the right thing,” said Select Board member Michael Tietjen. “I think the right thing to do is address the safety concern.”