The bridge that spans the Connecticut River between East Thetford and Lyme is in bad shape and is scheduled for a substantial overhaul.
Just how bad is it? It’s bad enough that if a qualified engineer with experience in similar bridges were to provide an honest assessment of its condition, it is likely that the verdict would be that the bridge needs to be not rehabilitated but completely replaced.
The bridge, two Parker trusses built in 1937, span from concrete abutments on either bank and rest on a concrete pier in the middle of the river. Many critical steel members are in terrible shape and need to be replaced. The concrete shows significant spalling and is likely in even worse shape beneath the surface where we can’t see. In 2014, the vehicular weight limit was reduced from 30 tons to 15 tons. The width of the bridge varies between 20 and 21 feet, meaning that traveled lanes are only slightly over 10 feet with barely room for two lanes of traffic or even one wide load, and no room for safe travel of pedestrians and bicycles. This at a time when nationwide people are getting out of their cars to walk or ride.
Why, we might ask, is the plan to the rehabilitate an old structure that doesn’t meet current standards for strength, multi-modal transport, longevity or public safety instead of building a complete new structure that is safer for all and meets contemporary design requirements?
At a recent meeting at Thetford Academy, New Hampshire Department of Transportation officials explained their rationale as consistent with federal and state law including the National Preservation Act (section 106) Federal Highway Act criterion 4f and New Hampshire’s 10-year highway funding plan. As NH DOT presenters explained, they are compelled to follow the dictates of these statutes, statutes that form the sides of a box that lead to only one possible conclusion. As they see it, their decision to rehabilitate the existing bridge is the only one available to them. It’s worth noting that NH DOT says if they had it to do over again, they’d likely reach a different decision.
If that weren’t enough, NH DOT says the river crossing will be closed for 18 months or more. And that will have a profound impact on merchants on both sides of the river, Lyme Country Store. Lyme Hardware, Wings Market, Cedar Circle Farm, Huggetts, Watson Automotive, banks, child care on both sides of the river, access to primary care, on students at Thetford Academy and Crossroads Academy, and more. For example, 18 closure months will span three academic years for Thetford Academy students. That will likely change the choices parents make about their kids’ education. There are currently 12 Lyme students at Thetford Academy (TA) which is entirely tuition-funded. Their parents might well decide to send their children to Bradford or Hanover. The loss of even half of those students will have a profound affect on property taxpayers in Thetford.
Vocal discussions about providing a temporary bridge, either adjacent to the existing bridge or two miles north at the site of a former covered bridge at North Thetford, have gone nowhere and have not been seriously pursued. A longer discussion about removing the current bridge entirely and replacing it with a modern bridge with at least 15-foot lanes and one more curbed lane for safe passage of pedestrians have been similarly dismissed. While very unfortunate, that is the direct result of NH DOT’s strict adherence to federal and state rules, even though had another approach been taken some years ago, we would be looking at a much more beneficial outcome — a bridge safe for cars, trucks, pedestrians and bicycles and that would eliminate periodic repainting of the 85 year old Parker trusses.
So we’re stuck in the middle. Convincing arguments about public safety, severe economic loss, community disruption and the huge expense of spending $11 million or more preserving a dysfunctional dinosaur have fallen on deaf ears while watching common sense drift down river. The current situation is a classic example of throwing good money after bad.
Vermont Rep. Jim Masland lives in Thetford Center. Rep. Becca White lives in Hartford. Bob Eaton is a retired civil engineer from the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover.