So where is our Hinsdale's route 119 bridge Shaheen and Rep tour...nobody locally got the guts to tour our bridge because they don't really want to know how bad it is.
Shaheen, Kuster tour SewallsFalls Bridge and call for its replacement
By LAURA McCRYSTAL
Monitor staff
Friday, September 13, 2013
(Published in print: Saturday, September 14, 2013)
(Published in print: Saturday, September 14, 2013)
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster visited the Sewalls Falls Bridge yesterday to express concern about its condition, which Concord officials said is deteriorating while they await federal approval to replace it.
“Hopefully we can help move it along,” Kuster said, as
she stood on the steel truss bridge.
City Engineer Ed Roberge led Shaheen, Kuster, Mayor Jim
Bouley and other officials on a tour of the bridge across the Merrimack River
yesterday morning and showed them its “levels of deterioration.” After holes
were found in the bridge this summer, Roberge said the city spent about $30,000
on repairs. Only passenger vehicles that weigh less than 3 tons are now
permitted to cross the bridge; that limit increases response times for
ambulances traveling to emergencies in East Concord.
The city council voted earlier this year to replace
rather than rehabilitate the nearly 100-year-old structure, but the federal
government has not yet completed its historical review of the bridge or allowed
the city to begin designing a new one.
Shaheen and Kuster sent a letter to the U.S. Department
of Transportation on the city’s behalf in July, urging officials to complete
their study. Federal funds will cover 80 percent of the roughly $10 million
bridge replacement project, and the government must complete a historic
preservation review to minimize damage to historic places. That review with the
state Division of Historical Resources has delayed the replacement project.
Design work cannot begin without that final approval,
even though “the financing is all there,” said City Manager Tom Aspell.
“There are significant issues with the safety of the
bridge,” Shaheen said yesterday. “Hopefully we’ll get that decision (from the
Department of Transportation) very soon. Congresswoman Kuster and I have
weighed in with the Department of Transportation to urge them to move
expeditiously so we can replace this bridge as soon as possible.”
Bouley thanked Shaheen and Kuster yesterday for visiting
the bridge and working to assist the city.
“Time is of the essence,” he said.
Yesterday morning, officials walked underneath the
approach to the bridge on the west side of the Merrimack River. Roberge pointed
to deteriorating steel and said the bridge is becoming a safety concern.
“There’s a certain amount of lifetime movement on the
steel before it really becomes brittle,” he said. “It’s like a paper clip. You
start bending that, and all the sudden it breaks. That’s the issue that we have
here.”
Bridges are typically inspected every other year, Roberge
said, but officials are now inspecting the bridge every month to determine
whether it is safe for vehicles. It is a nonredundant structure, Roberge said,
meaning the entire bridge could collapse if one part fails.
“We’ve got a public safety issue, we’ve got a major
inconvenience issue, the facilities and the trucks and the school buses and the
ambulances have to take a longer way around,” Kuster said. “If you add five or
10 minutes to an ambulance ride, you’re talking about a serious public safety
issue in addition to risk of injury from the bridge, actually, at this point. .
. . So we need to urge the government to move as expeditiously as possible.”
Shaheen added that the bridge project is an example of
much-needed infrastructure improvement.
“Beyond public safety, which is the top priority, for the
city to grow, this has to be dealt with,” she said. “And this is the kind of
project that we’ve got throughout New Hampshire and all throughout the country;
we’ve got red-list bridges that need to be addressed, and we’ve got to start
investing in our infrastructure.”
(Laura McCrystal can be reached at 369-3312 or
Originally published July 6, 2013I wouldn't trust anything these government haters libertarians would say. Basically, it is based on state reporting, I wouldn't trust anything reported by a state and especially NH on the condition of their highway infrastrure.
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I don’t trust any bridge inspection
report done in NH…
The Brat Reformer put this up on
their site and later took it down.
And the “Union Leader” newspaper is nothing but a extremist hard right wing rag…
Report on NH roads: Good, some bumps aheadI am just saying, this is an example with how close to death and economic destruction the state will allow a bridge to go.
Interstate highways in the southern tier of the state are the best in the nation, ranked number one in a 50-state analysis by the Reason Foundation, a nonpartisan, public-policy foundation that publishes Reason magazine.
With zero miles of urban interstate in poor condition, New Hampshire ranks first in that category, based largely on data from the Federal Highway Administration.
But with 30 percent of its bridges in poor or “deficient” condition, the state’s ranking on bridge quality falls to 41st. Only nine states have a larger percentage of bridges classified as deficient.
It is the town's bridge and they are using state funding to repair this bridge...so it is diluting the funding on all state bridges. It is not on a state designated route.
There are issues with the local people wanting this single lane and weight restricted choke point bridge...not wanting traffic and economic development.
I am just saying, it will take in excess of 10 years once we get on the ever expanding bad boy red listed bridge. We aren't near getting on the bridge red list.
I get it now, the bridge is a quarter mile away from the Concord Monitor's office.
Again, There are no strict NHDOT structural and safety standards…engineering and science standards. This is one of 400 red listed bridges and list is increasing by the year. We aren’t on a red list.
This bridge age is from 1915 and ours is 1921...
The span of the bridge is tiny compared to us...unsupported length between the piers.
Editorial: Bridge must be replaced as quickly as possible
Sunday, July 7, 2013
(Published in print: Sunday, July 7, 2013)
One day last week Concord motorists were forced to hit the brakes coming from and going toward the Sewalls Falls bridge. They carefully maneuvered around a clutch of workers fixing a patch of roadway and then (Phew! That was close!) hit the gas and went on their way. But that didn’t fix everything. To the contrary, workers found even more urgent repair needs. This week, the bridge will be closed for four days while more work is done, forcing drivers to find alternative routes.
Enough already.
Taxpayers have been throwing good money after bad for years. The bridge is in terrible shape. No secret there – it’s been on the state’s list of bad bridges for a long, long time. The rusty, twisted guardrails spook those drivers who haven’t grown accustomed to them. The weight load was recently downgraded from 14 tons to 10, preventing the use of the bridge by city emergency vehicles, and another downgrade is possible.
The steel trusses need repair and repainting. Both abutments have extensive cracking.
Here’s how a recent report by city and state officials described the part of the bridge you don’t see from behind the wheel: “There have been significant problems with the cut granite pier. A considerable number of stones have cracked, shifted and/or fallen into the river, thereby compromising the overall integrity of the pier. Although New Hampshire Department of Transportation Bridge Maintenance forces have performed repairs, these are not considered as permanently addressing concerns with the pier. The existing substructure elements are founded on spread footings placed on original soil at the excavated depths. Piles supporting the substructure were not utilized and the foundation design does not meet current protective scour design standards.”
In other words, yikes.
The state first started thinking about improving the Sewalls Falls bridge in 1994 – a year you might remember as a time when Bill Clinton was in the White House, Forrest Gump was playing at the movies and O.J. Simpson was accused of murder.
Budget realities have slowed the process over the years, as has a change of plans for the bridge.
But the time for action is now.Until recently, the plan called for two spans, each going in one direction: one would be the existing Sewalls Falls bridge, saved and rehabilitated; the second would be a new bridge built alongside it. But in February, faced with a new assessment of the cost of fixing and maintaining the old bridge, the Concord City Council wisely reconsidered.
Removing the bridge and replacing it with something modern, safe, cost-effective and, dare we say, better looking, is the right way to go.
Trouble is, switching gears has triggered a whole new round of government bureaucracy. Because the bridge, built in 1915, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and because the replacement project will be federally funded, it’s subject to a historic preservation review.
Didn’t that happen years ago? Yes, of course, but that’s when the plan was to save the bridge. The new plan, to replace it, means that work must be done all over again. According to City Engineer Ed Roberge, it could delay construction for as long as a year.
This can’t possibly be the best course, for taxpayers or for motorists. The debate – save the bridge versus replace the bridge – has been had. The public has weighed in. The city council made a difficult but smart decision.
Surely the feds – perhaps with some heat from New Hampshire’s congressional delegation – could be convinced that speed is of the essence here. The Sewalls Falls bridge, which isn’t getting any younger or safer, should be replaced as quickly as possible.
By LAURA McCRYSTAL
Monitor staff
Saturday, July 6, 2013
The roadway approaching the Sewalls Falls Bridge is falling apart. The bridge across the Merrimack River will close while it’s repaired next week.
A section of concrete in the approach to the bridge failed last week, leaving a hole in the deck. Crews repaired that spot, but also inspected the bridge. Several other spots were also close to failing, said City Engineer Ed Roberge.
“The pavement condition is not the best on that approach span, and it’s really because of the concrete that’s beneath it,” he said.
So next week, Roberge said crews will “chop those areas out and replace those.” The work includes replacing the failing concrete and adding steel reinforcements. The bridge will be closed Monday through Thursday, from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
Though the city plans to tear down and replace the 1915-era truss bridge, it could be a few more years before that work begins. Meanwhile, the bridge needs additional repairs to remain usable.
“It’s in tough shape,” said City Manager Tom Aspell.
Roberge said he’s also evaluating whether to reduce the load limit on the bridge.
“It seems like every time I visit the city council, they ask me is it safe and can we keep it open,” he said. “There’s caveats to that, and one may be that we make a recommendation to down-post it.”
He’ll wait to make that decision until next week’s repairs are done. The one-lane bridge currently has a load limit of 10 tons; it’s previously been downgraded from 20 tons and 14 tons. With a 10-ton limit, Roberge said an ambulance is “the upper-end limit of that weight load.”
Engineering studies have shown that the bridge is in a state of disrepair.
“The existing conditions of the roadway and bridge result in safety hazards for the traveling public and segments the recreation trail systems that exist on both sides of the bridge as noted above,” states a May report from CHA Consulting Inc.
Earlier this year, the city council voted to replace the bridge rather than rehabilitate it. But officials have not yet begun designs for a new bridge.
The federal government will fund 80 percent of the project. The Federal Highway Administration still must grant approval for the project to continue, and must review the impact of removing the historical structure.
Sewalls Falls Bridge to close for repairs
By LAURA McCRYSTAL
Monitor staff
Sewalls Falls Bridge to close for repairs
A truck starts across the Sewalls Falls Bridge; Wednesday, July 3, 2013. The bridge will be closed for several days next week for repair work on the roadway on the west side of the span.
ALEXANDER COHN / Monitor staffThe crumbling Sewalls Falls Bridge will be closed for several days next week for repair work on the roadway on the west side of the span. Photographed on Wednesday, July 3, 2013.
ALEXANDER COHN / Monitor staffThe crumbling Sewalls Falls Bridge will be closed for several days next week for repair work on the roadway on the west side of the span. Photographed on Wednesday, July 3, 2013.
Monitor staff
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
After serving as a path across the Merrimack River for nearly 100 years, the Sewalls Falls Bridge will be coming down. The Concord City Council voted unanimously last night to tear down and replace the aging steel bridge in East Concord.
“I think the time has come to now move along,” said at-large Councilor Steve Shurtleff, who has long advocated to preserve the bridge.
“It’s unfair to the people in the area that use that bridge. We need a new bridge. It’s a safety hazard.”
But the bridge could be here to stay for at least a few more years; the state Department of Transportation’s current capital plan includes nearly $15.2 million for the project in 2014 and 2015.
The city council voted in 2006 to rehabilitate the bridge and build a new, one-lane bridge alongside it. But last August, after a new study revealed the bridge was in worse condition than expected, the council voted to again review about a dozen options.
Last night, City Engineer Ed Roberge asked the council to decide between two options: remove and replace the bridge or continue with the 2006 plan.
Rehabilitating the bridge and building a new one would have cost more than previously expected, Roberge said, and maintaining the existing bridge would have long-term costs.
Ward 3 Councilor Jan McClure said she supported replacing the bridge, but had heard from residents who feared a new bridge would “create a superhighway into what is a residential neighborhood right now.”
The bridge replacement will require closing the bridge during construction
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