CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The state is shutting down the Red Mills Bridge on River Road for two months. 

 

Select Board Chair Daniel Haskins said he, Town Administrator Ronald Boucher and Road Foreman Kyle Hurlbut had a Zoom meeting a few weeks ago with the state Department of Transportation to express their concerns.

 

"They're going to put a temporary bridge over the top of the existing bridge," he said at Monday's Select Board meeting. "They're going to shut down the road for about two months, which is our main artery going through town, which 

we weren't too excited to hear that."

 

The temporary bridge is expected to serve until MassDOT installs a new one in five years. 

 

Surveyors had been at the Route 8 bridge, at the intersection with East Road Extension, and at the bridge over Hudson Brook on Middle Road, which the state also plans to replace. 

 

"It's still up in the air right now if we can even keep East Road still open, going up that way, because ... the temporary bridge that they're putting in the way has to kind of come out past the [existing] bridge," Haskins said. "It may block off East Road, so we're hoping to maybe at least keep it one lane for getting up there, for one-lane traffic."

 

Blocking off the bridge causes several issues: it blocks off East Road and Daniels for emergency services and buses, closes the main highway into Vermont, and forces large trucks to detour over narrow residential roads.

 

If the length of the temporary bridge blocks East Road, fire trucks, for example, will have to travel from Cross Road to Middle Road to Henderson Road to East Road, or, travel south on River Road to Beaver Street in North Adams, north on Union Street and then to Walker Street. 

 

"MassDOT is working on a reroute plan for all tractor-trailer traffic and all the other vehicles that roll through there," Haskins said. "How they're going to detour those up through like the Daniels Road, East Road area, because we can't divert anyone up Cross Road, because we have that one-lane bridge there, so that's not a reroute option."

 

He said it sounds like the reroute will be up Walker Street to catch Daniels Road, then East Road, and then traffic would come back out to River Road at the Mausert's four corners.

 

It's not clear how a tractor-trailer would manuever the tight intersection at Walker and Daniels. If they were rerouted onto Middle Road, they'd have to navigate steep Houghton and Franklin streets in North Adams. 

 

The Red Mills Bridge is listed on the MassDOT site as being "structurally deficient" with a deck and superstructure rating of 4. It was built in 1970 of prestressed concrete.  

 

The 11-foot-long unnamed steel bridge on Middle Road also is considered structurally deficient, although its deck is rated fair. It was built in 1950. 

 

Town officials said the state hasn't been able to give them a timeline other than that they were looking at possibly mid-February. Haskins said Hurlbut has been in constant contact with MassDOT, trying to find a way to keep East Road open and the bridge one lane at least. 

 

"Kyle is very concerned about how the plow is going to work out. Our fire chief's been made aware of it for emergency planning already, but we just wanted to kind of let everyone know what's coming down the pipeline for that area, so there's no surprises when the state shows up and blocks it off," Haskins said. 

 

Boucher said District 1 Highway Director Francisca Heming had no news to share on Monday but told him she would let them know as soon as she did. 

 

"One good thing came out of this for us, the Middle Road bridge over Hudson Brook, which is our bridge, we were going to have to repair it out of our pocket," Boucher said. "The state now is going to fix it for us. ... MassDOT will be taking over its advertisement and construction." 

 

That bridge will be done "right away," he said, which also had the Select Board concerned about two bridges being out of commission at the same time. 

 

This summer will also see the reconstruction of the lower part of Middle Road, through a MassWorks grant; the Cross Bridge road will remain one-way until 2029, when it's scheduled for replacement through the state's Transportation Improvement Plan.