WENDELL — Erving and Wendell need to find a way to fill a $376,000 funding gap related to necessary Farley Road Bridge repairs.
About $405,000 has been set aside for the project, which is projected to cost about $780,000, and the two towns must explore various avenues to secure the financing, including grant funding.
The bridge, which spans the Millers River to connect the Erving village of Farley from Bridge Street to neighboring Wendell, was closed in the fall. It is now unavailable to vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle traffic until construction is completed, which Phil Delorey — who chairs the Wendell Road Commission — predicts will happen no sooner than the spring.
Delorey attended Wednesday’s Wendell Selectboard meeting, which included a session with their Erving counterparts, and told board members that Erving officials have made it clear that they do not want to merely cover bridge defects with new surface.
“I can’t disagree with that,” he said.
Erving Town Administrator Bryan Smith explained that the bare minimum needed to reopen the deteriorated bridge is new decking estimated to cost $20,000, and that work would later need to be torn up for the more complete remedy. This, he said, would ultimately cost more money.
Smith said the price tag may appear daunting, but he is not particularly surprised, as the wooden and steel bridge just off Route 2 was built in 1889. Warner Bros LLC, based out of Sunderland, has been awarded the construction contract.
Keith T. Nelson, the senior project manager overseeing the repairs, has been tasked with revising his repair plan and will submit updates to the state Department of Transportation for review. Smith said this process will likely take several weeks.