Construction of the new Brightman Street Bridge is back on track, news that
might have pleased officials from Fall River and Somerset about four years ago.
“It’s really not going well,” said Fall River Mayor Edward M. Lambert Jr. “There is a sense of resignation that the project will go on and on.”
According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction, work is being finished on support piers and protective structures for the drawbridge portion of the new bridge, to be located 1,000 feet north of the current Brightman Street Bridge.
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Work continues on the substructure of the new bridge, and in mid-May construction of the last cofferdam will be started. The expected completion date for the bridge is 2008.
Frustrations over the stalled construction of a new Brightman Street Bridge have been heightened now that the existing circa-1906 structure has been used as an alternative to avoid Braga Bridge work.
“This is a matter of public safety and I’m disappointed in MassHighway and the state that this process could not be expedited,” said Eleanor L. Gagnon, chair of the board of selectman in Somerset. “There has been little or no progress in at least a year.”
Braga Bridge, which carries Interstate 195 over the Taunton River, is undergoing deck repair that is expected to last until 2005. The existing Brightman Street Bridge has seen a heavy increase in traffic as drivers look to avoid construction and get over the river.
The expected price tag of the project is $165 million, although Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District’s Transportation Manager Roland Hebert said the cost could increase along with the rising cost of steel.
“I don’t think that (the) state has the money,” he said, adding that he’s not sure how steel prices will affect the project. “With all the delays, I seriously doubt whether the project will get done by 2008.”
The current Brightman Street Bridge is officially listed as deficient. Although still capable of handling traffic, the current bridge requires $300,000 worth of repairs a year and vehicles weighing more than 9 tons must find another way over the Taunton River.
“The existing Brightman Street Bridge is structurally deficient,” said Judith Forman, a spokeswoman at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. “As of May 3, there were 538 MassHighway and municipally owned bridges that are structurally deficient, down from 758 10 years ago.”
Gagnon said traffic has been overwhelming at the old Brightman Street Bridge and that there is a general fear that someday the aging drawbridge will go up and not come down.
“It’s something people think about all the time. I know I do,” she said.
Not all officials are completely pessimistic.
“It looks like we have finally gotten back on a forward track,” said Peter F. Kortright, president and CEO of the Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He added that his organization hasn’t yet studied the impact on business of a new or the old Brightman Street Bridge.
“I suspect we will become more familiar with the effect on business as the project moves along. But it’s definitely not done yet,” he said. “We are used to transportation projects in southeastern Massachusetts lasting an inordinate amount of time.”
The project has been broken into five phases, of which the first three have been bid on and contracts have been signed. Federal funds will cover 80 percent of the cost and the state will pay for 20 percent.
Mayor Lambert said he too is anxious to see the bridge project complete, but at the same time the delays are having a positive effect from his standpoint.
“The delays have stalled the LNG project,” he said, referring to an initiative by Weaver’s Cove Energy LLC to put a liquefied natural gas import terminal up river from the proposed bridge. Officials and residents have said they fear the dangers of a possible spill or terrorist attack, which some environmental organizations say would cause considerable damage to area residents in Somerset and Fall River.
“I am firmly opposed to the terminal,” Lambert added. “Delays at the Brightman Street Bridge project could mean the terminal won’t be in place for many years.”
