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Westbrook’s Lynn Road Bridge Fix Delayed

To preserve elements of a historic Works Progress Administration structure, the State’s Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is requiring the town re-work the Lynn Road bridge replacement design to incorporate more of the original bridge’s stones. That means the February 2017 bids the town received for the old bridge design are now invalid; the selectmen last week had to reject them.

It also means that the town has run out of time to make a new design, secure state approval of it, and re-bid the project for completion in the 2017 construction season. So now the aging Lynn Road bridge, with a superstructure and decking rated as poor and a substructure and footings rated as fair, will not be replaced until at least 2018.

In addition to facing a second state Department of Transportation (DOT) approval process for the new plans, the project also has another hurdle. For state-funded road projects where there could be nesting areas for the northern long-eared bat, tree-clearing work must stop by April 15.

“We met with SHPO at the Department of Transportation office on Feb. 28. They will require that stones on the bridge parapet be re-used at a minimum,” said Scott Madeiros of town engineering firm Woodard and Curran.

Madeiros said that what SHPO wants is to have the two inner roadbed walls and the inner walls’ top to be faced with stones from the original bridge. Other details of the final design are still being discussed with SHPO.

“By March 3, we had prepared sketches to represent the options, but there are still challenges and issues. We still need to get a mutually acceptable resolution,” said Madeiros. “And we cannot clear the trees after April 15 because of the northern long-eared bat. That means waiting for another construction season.”

Madeiros told the Board of Selectmen on March 21 that the new work that SHPO and the state DOT are now requiring would likely add about $100,000 to the cost of the bridge. Eventually, that means the current bridge project budget is not enough to do the job. That in turn means asking the state for more grant funds and possibly returning to the town to ask for supplemental funds, too. Madeiros did say that as long as the town only delays one construction season, DOT should reactivate the grant awards the town previously received.

“The bridge is not currently in a state that it would have to be closed,” said Madeiros, noting, “The deck and superstructure are in a worse condition than the footings.”

Among the challenges still unresolved is how to design the new stone-faced bridge edges to avoid damage from snow plows, for example.

Once the existing 13-foot long Lynn Road Bridge is replaced with a planned new bridge of 20 feet in length, it will finally exceed the threshold requiring its inclusion on DOT’s bridge inspection schedule. Due to its shorter length, Lynn Road bridge has not in the past been on DOT’s inspection list.

“Bridges of 20 or more feet in length are inspected routinely by DOT,” said Madeiros.