It should not take a deadly accident to get Montague’s General Pierce Bridge repaired. But it remains unclear what it will take to move state officials to take more than a Band-Aid approach to repairing the structure.
It’s not as if state Department of Transportation officials aren’t aware of the problems. Local officials have continually voiced concerns, and MassDOT has through the years sent out crews for patch jobs and quick fixes. A hole in the bridge’s decking that allowed people to see through to the Connecticut River below triggered a call in late February. When a repair crew came to patch the hole, they found other problems leading to more pavement repairs.
It’s safe to say that now we’re talking about fixes of fixes.
And this repair work doesn’t even take into account that the bridge was slated for major rehabilitation in 2007, work that was never done. Four years ago, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials rated the bridge a 42 out of 100, with anything below a 50 rating seen as needing complete replacement, according to Maureen Mullaney, transportation manager for Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
For that matter, the state has classified the 70-year-old structure as “structurally deficient,” though apparently that it isn’t seen as dangerous enough to close.
“There is not enough money for every project, so they have to prioritize. For whatever reason, the General Pierce Bridge has not risen to the top of their list,” Mullaney said.
Yes, there is a limited amount of money available for all of the many roads and bridges in the state requiring repairs or replacement. But it’s not too cynical to say that the bridge that connects Montague City and Greenfield isn’t a priority because it’s in the western Massachusetts. The region has neither the volume of traffic nor volume of political influence for the job to become a priority.
Now the state says the General Pierce Bridge is in the five-year capital project mix but rehabilitation money, in the neighborhood of $18 million, hasn’t been identified. The project won’t likely happen until 2021, though there isn’t any guarantee of that, either.
We hope area legislators are trying to persuade MassDOT that the General Pierce Bridge should be a higher priority, so it won’t take a serious accident to get the work done.