Stockbridge — The Select Board will meet at 4:30 p.m. on February 8 to determine the temporary fate of the Glendale Middle Road Bridge that spans over the Housatonic River following a February 5 telephone call from Massachusetts Department of Transportation representatives giving Stockbridge Town Administrator Michael Canales a “heads up” for action needed regarding the structure’s safety.
“It is recommended that the bridge be CLOSED to vehicular traffic,” states a February 6 email from MassDOT to the Stockbridge Select Board. Alternatively, the correspondence provides that the two-lane bridge can remain open if its use is decreased to a single lane, with alternating traffic. The town is required, per the email, to construct pertinent barriers by February 29.
The Glendale Middle Road Bridge remains open for now; that is, until the Select Board decides how to move forward with its remediation. “There is time here for us to make a determination as to what we want to do with the bridge,” Canales told The Berkshire Edge. “[MassDOT is] recommending that the bridge be closed. I’m meeting with the selectmen who have to make the decision whether to close the bridge or not.”
One of the options available to the town is to petition the state agency for the bridge to operate with a single lane open. Although a possible detour along Routes 183 and 102 may be available to avoid the bridge, Canales said that his staff will be recommending to the Select Board to leave the bridge open with a single lane of traffic.
“They’ve notified us that we have to take action and by the 29th, we have to have the remedy [barriers] in place,” he said.
According to Canales, the bridge remains safe for vehicular traffic in the meantime. “They don’t send you this notice where they’re giving us ‘X’ time to come up with a response, ‘Are we going to put up barricades, are we going to put up lights, are we going to do the rest,’” he said. “That’s why we have between now and the 29th to take action.”
Canales said the town has received similar notices in the past, including for two bridges on Averic Road. “So, this is not uncommon for the state to inform the community that they are recommending closure,” he said. The time given between the notice and the date to act provides an opportunity to otherwise accommodate traffic and bus routes.
According to the bridge’s 2022 Rating Report, some section loss was noted relevant to the stress that the bridge can take on. Out of the four critical elements rated, two of those items—the deck (bridge surface) and superstructure (the strongest part of the bridge)—were rated a “5,” or “fair,” out of a high score of “9,” with “0 as “failing” and “9” as “excellent.” The report defines “fair” as “all primary structural elements are sound but may have minor section loss, cracking, spalling [the process of breaking into small sections] or scour [erosion].”
The substructure received a rating of “6,” or “satisfactory,” defined as showing some minor deterioration, and the channel received a rating of “7,” or “good,” meaning some minor problems exist.
