Lee — For residents Gail and Steve Marlow, traveling out of their Village at October Mountain community has become uncomfortable following the Mill Street bridge’s decrease to a single lane over Washington Mountain Brook last November. “Today [October 23], there were seven cars behind the stop sign [ahead of the bridge], and it’s just an inconvenience,” Gail Marlow said.
The couple sat in the front row of Lee’s Town Hall meeting room, anxious to hear Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) staff explain the agency’s plans to completely replace the structure by 2030.
Steve Marlow questioned the timeline of the proposed project after eyeing Pittsfield’s Holmes Street bridge repair, with that bridge reopening in August 2023 following six years of the structure allowing only one lane of traffic. It was completely closed for more than two months during that span. Steve Marlow noted the project angered residents in the vicinity of the bridge who posted signs outside their homes urging transportation officials to fix the road. “We’re afraid that we’re going to have the same situation here,” he said.
Construction and cost
Built in 1911, the Mill Street bridge was widened in 1937. However, according to MassDOT Project Manager Kristina Chestna, the structure’s steel beams at the bridge’s upper section have deteriorated. Together with other deficiencies in the structure including the poor condition of concrete railings and lack of guardrails, the entire bridge must be replaced, resulting in the $6.8 million project to be funded by federal and MassDOT monies. That tally does not include the rights of way over public or private property—three permanent easements and four temporary easements—the town of Lee will need to obtain to bring the project to fruition.
The project will broaden the bridge to include two 11-foot-wide vehicular lanes with a five-foot wide shoulder on each side as well as a pedestrian and bicycle sidewalk on the bridge’s east side. The bridge will be lengthened by 17 feet to a total of 47 feet, its deteriorated components eliminated, and 10 concrete beams added to span about 46½ feet. New support structures and “crashworthy” railings on each side will be added, according to presentation materials, and sediment in the stream will be removed, expanding the bridge opening. To complete the project, an existing gas line beneath the brook will be relocated.
During the two-phase construction, the bridge will remain as one lane, but a temporary traffic signal will be constructed on site to alternate the one-way traffic. However, no dedicated pedestrian path across the bridge will be available at this time in the project, and turns onto and out of Washington Mountain Road from Mill Street will not be permitted.
At times, the bridge will need to be completely closed to traffic, and MassDOT has put into place a 5.3-mile detour for residents and truck traffic, with that route encompassing Walker Street, Blantyre Road, Route 20, Center Street, and Columbia Street. This short-term displacement should only occur a couple of evenings or days during the project, said Design Consultant Project Manager Jeff Lewis, engineer with Garofalo & Associates Inc., the bridge’s designer. The design will be put out to bid in the summer of 2027, with construction set to begin in the spring of 2028, and the lowest qualified bidder will be awarded the construction project, Chestna said. The project will take two construction cycles to complete for an estimated 2030 finish date at the latest, she said.
A copy of the presentation slides can be found here. Comments can be submitted to MassDOTProjectManagement@dot.state.ma.us or to Chief Engineer Carrie E. Lavallee, P.E., MassDOT-Highway Division, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA 02116-3973, Attention Project Management.
Abutters call for safety now
Lewis assured residents the bridge is currently safe for trucks, but area property owners reported larger trucks accessing the bridge despite signs limiting the structure’s load. Town Administrator Christopher Brittain said local officials have previously sought the help of state law enforcement whose officers ticketed such violators.
Longtime resident Clare Lahey lives adjacent to the project in her husband’s boyhood home and is concerned about the disruption and noise she expects to emanate from the construction site, a project that warrants closing off her driveway during the work. She stands to lose some of her front yard as right of way for the project. “It’s my home, and I’m planning to stay there,” Lahey told The Berkshire Edge following the program. “I know it has to be done.”
Having witnessed a few accidents on the one-way bridge already, abutter Marilyn Hanson shared her safety issues with the current configuration. Lahey called the present bridge situation “unbearable.” “I live right there, and I have to hear everybody fighting, blowing their horns, accidents,” she said. “People getting angry and motorcyclists just zooming through as fast as they can.”
Along with other neighbors, Lahey advocated for the possibility of shutting down the bridge completely as a way of hastening the project, “to get it over with.”
Bridge site testing related to Rest of River cleanup
Responding to The Berkshire Edge, Lewis confirmed that soil samples at the bridge project site were tested for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) toxicity in light of the upcoming Housatonic River remediation program.
For decades, General Electric Company (GE) discharged the now-banned toxins into the waterway from its Pittsfield plant. Those actions resulted in a remedy that involves constructing an upland disposal facility (UDF) near October Mountain to house the lesser contaminated dredged soil and sediment transported from the Superfund site. The measure has long been opposed by Lee residents as a health hazard to the town’s citizens and way of life.
That remediation schedule overlaps with the timeline of the Mill Street bridge replacement project.
“The conclusion of that test was that the PCB in this location was negligible,” Lewis said.
He estimated the testing was performed six or eight months ago and said he did not know whether the contaminated soils from the remediation program would impact the bridge project that goes through 2030. Construction on the preparation of the UDF site is set to begin next month.
“At this point, [more testing in the future] wasn’t anticipated,” Lewis said. “I don’t know how frequently PCBs get tested for during projects, but I can certainly ask the question.”
