GREENFIELD — The 85-year-old bridge that crosses over the Green River on Nash’s Mill Road will be closed for about one year beginning on Halloween at between 7 and 8 a.m.
New England Infrastructure Inc. has been contracted by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to replace the bridge at a cost of $2,590,815. Work is expected to be complete by October 2019.
Message boards are being installed this week to provide advanced notice of the road closure to motorists on Oct. 31. The bridge will be closed to motorists and pedestrians. A detour will be in place with appropriate signage to guide motorists around the closure for the duration of the project.
MassDOT will provide information on activities and traffic impacts as soon as they become available.
The project will include replacing the bridge, widening shoulders and installing new sidewalks. The new, single-span, 105-foot steel beam bridge will be wider, and will include 10-foot lanes, 4-foot shoulders and a 5-foot sidewalk on the south side. The project will be funded through the 2018 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the Franklin Regional Council of Governments.
The state TIP, run by MassDOT, prioritizes transportation projects across the state. In May 2017, MassDOT held a public hearing on replacement plans for the bridge built in 1933.
“The bridge has been determined to be ‘functionally obsolete’ and ‘structurally deficient.” The bridge now has a weight restriction and one lane open. Perkins said the replacement will be “designed to support all current vehicle weights,” said Peter Perkins, a structural engineer at Clough Harbour & Associates, the design firm hired by the city for the project, during meetings and public hearings the city held in 2017 about the bridge and its replacement.
The final design of the project, overseen by the city, was approved in March.
During the deed search — in preparation for the project application — an unclaimed 1,580-square-foot parcel of land in the middle of the Green River was discovered. To complete the application and begin the funding and construction cycle, clarification of the parcel ownership was required. It was discovered that the parcel had no owner and no deed, and is surrounded by town-owned land and water, according to the mayor. In a special City Council meeting in December 2017, councilors approved the city’s acquisition of the land rights for the purpose of the construction and maintenance of the bridge on Nash’s Mill Road.
A detour will be established during the one-year-long construction. That detour means residents will have to travel 3½ miles down Conway, Elm and Colrain streets and Colrain Road.
Some people, including City Councilor-at-large Isaac Mass, have voiced concern about closing a major route for people traveling from west to east Greenfield, but according to officials, including former Greenfield Public Works Director Donald Ouellette, the bridge has become a safety issue.
According to a 2013 traffic study by the state, “approximately 6,980 vehicles, 6 percent of which is estimated to be truck traffic,” traverse the bridge each day.