LEBANON — The state has agreed to commit more funding to the replacement of a bridge on Trues Brook Road, which will make it possible to erect a temporary span during construction.
Lebanon and Plainfield residents had expressed concern about Lebanon’s earlier plan to close the deteriorated bridge over Bloods Brook while replacing it. Residents on the winding, two-lane road and commuters who use it would have had to detour through Meriden and downtown Lebanon.
The City Council was slated to meet Wednesday evening with the Plainfield Selectboard, but the meeting, which state lawmakers and transportation officials were expected to attend, was called off.
The state had agreed to fund 80% of the project’s cost, but when the estimated cost ballooned from $2.2 million to $4.1 million, the state declined to pay 80% of the higher estimate, Lebanon City Manager Shaun Mulholland said Tuesday.
Lebanon planned to close the bridge, which is around 500 feet east of Derby Lane, during construction to save the extra $650,000 cost of putting up a temporary bridge, but the state has agreed to pay 80% of the new estimate, which will provide enough funding for a temporary bridge.
Mulholland said Lebanon’s elected state officials went to bat for the project funding.
“That’s what we were waiting on,” he said.
The state now has federal funding for infrastructure projects, he noted.
But federal money wasn’t a factor in the state’s decision, C.R. Willeke, a municipal highway engineer with the state Department of Transportation, said Tuesday.
“We wanted to vet the cost estimate that the city put together before we agreed to additional funding,” Willeke said. State engineers still feel the city’s estimate is “a little bit high,” he said. “We’ll really know the true cost when it goes out to bid.”
Closing the bridge would have cut off a busy route between West Lebanon and Meriden. Trues Brook Road, called Willow Brook or just Brook Road in Plainfield, carries around 1,100 cars per day. Closure also would have reduced construction time from about a year to five months, which would reduce costs.
But the residents and commuters would have faced longer drives and longer response times from emergency services. In November, Plainfield Town Manager Steve Halleran estimated that about a third of Plainfield commutes on Brook Road. Closing the bridge for five months was too long, he said at the time.
The state funding, “makes the point moot for Plainfield, because the road will be open,” Halleran said Tuesday.
Assuming the estimated $4.1 million cost of replacing the bridge stays the same, the state’s 80% share would come to $3.28 million, while Lebanon would pay $820,000. The city’s share is about half of what it would have been under the old funding model.
The project, which is slated for construction in 2023, also includes rebuilding about 900 feet of the roadway.
Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.
