CANAAN — A bridge on Potato Road that spans the Indian River has been closed indefinitely after a state inspection deemed it had “structural deficiencies.”
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation notified the town last Friday and the town announced that the bridge was closed Monday.
“The steel has deteriorated to the point where it no longer has the bearing capacity for traffic,” Julie Avenant, a project manager in DOT’s Bureau of Planning & Community Assistance, said in a phone interview.
Potato Road intersects with Route 4 and goes through Enfield before ending at Grafton Pond Road. The one-lane, town-owned bridge that is closed is closer to Route 4.
The bridge has been on the state’s municipal bridge “red list” since 2012, Avenant said. The “red list” keeps track of bridges that are required to have “interim inspections due to poor condition,” according to the department.
The Potato Road bridge has been inspected annually since 2012. Prior to being closed, it had a 15-ton weight restriction.
The bridge is scheduled to be replaced in the next couple years. The current timeline calls for requests for construction bids to go out in fall 2026 and for construction to begin the following spring, Avenant said.
The total project cost is around $3.3 million. The majority of the project will be funded by state and federal dollars, Avenant said. The town share is around $84,000. She cautioned that the project total cost is “always subject to change based on how the construction bids come in.”
In the meantime, the detour is about six miles: People can get to Potato Road by going down Route 4 and using South Road near Mascoma Valley Regional High School, then loop back to Potato Road, Canaan Police Chief Ryan Porter said.
There is also a detour from Gristmill Hill Road in Canaan Village that connects to an unpaved portion of South Road. Porter recommends motorists use the detour by the high school because that portion of South Road is paved.
“It’s not going to be too terrible, but it will certainly add a few minutes to our response time,” Porter said in a phone interview.
Police also will be increasing patrols along South Road as people adjust to the detours and traffic is likely to increase. “We’ll be out there much more now,” he said.
People can still access Potato Road and park along the Northern Rail Trail access point, which is close to the Route 4 intersection, Porter said.
“A lot of people use it as a bypass to Enfield Center and beyond,” Porter said of Potato Road. It is also a popular route to Grafton Pond.
Two of Mascoma Valley Regional School District’s bus routes have been affected by the closure and are now 5 to 10 minutes longer, Superintendent Amanda Isabelle wrote in an email.
The town is in the process of exploring options for a temporary bridge, Canaan Town Administrator Chet Hagenbarth said in a recording of Tuesday night’s Selectboard meeting.
“The state doesn’t provide temporary bridges for towns,” Avenant said. “We just don’t have the inventory to provide temporary bridges for municipal bridges.”
The bridge has been on the state’s municipal bridge “red list” since 2012, Avenant said. The “red list” keeps track of bridges that are required to have “interim inspections due to poor condition,” according to the department.
The Potato Road bridge has been inspected annually since 2012. Prior to being closed, it had a 15-ton weight restriction.
