Great Barrington — Emergency repairs to the now-closed Division Street bridge will likely take place this winter, with the goal of reopening the formerly busy span by the summer.
That was just one of several bits of news as Department of Public Works director Sean Van Deusen briefed the selectboard last week on almost two dozen projects his department is working on around town.
On orders from the state Department of Transportation, the embattled bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in September of last year. Two years ago, the MassDOT deemed the bridge “structurally deficient” after a July 2018 inspection revealed deteriorated steel stringers.
Voters subsequently approved a $4 million bond at the 2019 annual town meeting to fund significant repairs of the aging steel-truss structure, which was originally constructed in 1950. A couple of years after the repair, the town could be eligible for up to $12 million from the state to permanently replace the span.
Van Deusen said Tighe & Bond, the town’s engineering firm, will soon submit plans to MassDOT for Chapter 85 approval, which is the final step before the project goes out to bid.
See video below of the Sept. 21 Great Barrington selectboard meeting. Fast forward to 11:00 to see Van Deusen’s presentation:
“It looks like we’re communicating pretty well with DOT and we don’t anticipate too many problems with the review,” Van Deusen said. “It might be a month or two before we are finished with that.”
Van Deusen expects an updated schedule from Tighe & Bond in the next three or four weeks. At that time he will have a better idea of what the construction will look like and precisely when the bridge will reopen.
The highly traveled Division Street bridge runs east and west, and connects routes 41 and 183 just south of the village of Housatonic. Barriers and detour signage were promptly installed to alert drivers after it was closed. The bridge remains open to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Nearby residents had long complained that large trucks exceeding the weight limit routinely crossed the bridge every day.
Since the closing, the town has been under pressure to reopen the bridge as soon as possible. To wit, Dan Tawczynski, who, with his family, owns Taft Farms, a popular farm and store at the intersection of Route 183 and Division Street, said last year that business at his store has decreased by 38% on Mondays through Thursdays since the Division Street bridge closed. Tawczynski has suggested he might go out of business if the closure persists.
The Division Street bridge is a through-truss bridge. It spans 134 feet across the Housatonic River, with a vertical clearance of slightly more than 14 feet.
Van Deusen has said that, while the permanent replacement of the bridge will require it to be closed for at least six to eight months, it will be a planned closing that will give motorists and others plenty of warning. In contrast, when MassDOT ordered the Division Street bridge closed last year, there were only three or four days’ notice.
Triplex parking lot and Bridge Street
Phase 2 of a MassWorks grant will see repaving and drainage work in the parking lot between Elm Street and the Triplex Cinema, except for a small portion between the Barrington House and the Triplex, which is in private hands. A redo of Bridge Street is also part of that project.
Van Deusen said engineering estimates for the total cost of the project were off by $1.5 million, so funds had to be diverted from other road projects, so about 18 to 24 months of paving projects had to be put off.
The project that includes Bridge Street and the aforementioned parking lot is expected to go out to bid on in two to three weeks. The project might have been started sooner but the outdoor dining taking place this summer in the Barrington Courtyard would have been disrupted, Van Deusen said.
Emergency wastewater treatment plant repairs
Emergency work is also scheduled to begin soon on the town wastewater treatment plant on Bentley Avenue. The aeration tank for the plant has been down for several months and it is essential for the plant to function properly.
“We went out to bid but unfortunately there were no bidders,” Van Deusen said. “It’s a very strange bidding environment right now.”
So the town has declared an emergency, and with the help of an engineering firm, the work, which Van Deusen terms “a necessity,” should be completed in the next two months. He estimates the cost at $100,000. Bids are also going out soon for four new remote pumping stations, which should be installed early in the spring.
Van Deusen also said DPW will be asking for an increase in the sludge disposal fee for the plant. A significant increase in part-time residents now living in the area full-time because of the pandemic has resulted in a rise in the amount of sludge from septic systems being transported to the plant and released for disposal.
“It does generate revenue for us but it also taxes the plant,” Van Deusen explained.
Housatonic upgrades
In Housatonic, a new boiler is scheduled to be installed at the Ramsdell Library before winter sets in, while a sidewalk replacement project for Main Street has been put out to bid and will likely start in the spring.
Also taking place later this fall and into the winter will be a project to execute energy improvements at the Housatonic Community Center, Town Hall and the Great Barrington Police Department. That work will be funded by a $163,725 grant from the state Department of Energy Resources.
Main Street trip hazards
Town engineers have also completed an assessment of tripping hazards on Main Street. Van Deusen told The Edge that the most complaints have come from pedestrians walking in the areas in front of Barrington Outfitters and Wheeler & Taylor, where portions of the sidewalk side have curbs that face the buildings as well as curbs that face the street.
“We’ll be actively trying to address those trip hazards as funding is available and as the timing sort of works out, considering we don’t want to have downtown ripped up all at once,” Van Deusen said. “So we will strategically pick those tripping hazards with probably … the most dangerous first, while also trying to do them in the spring and fall so that we’re not impacting downtown businesses too much.”
Van Deusen told the selectboard he also has about 20 other projects in the works but there was not enough time for him to enumerate them all. He plans to continue the discussion at a future meeting.
