WOOLWICH

Woolwich selectmen have opted to add a $19,000 evaluation of the George Wright Bridge to the warrant for a Sept. 5 special Town Meeting.

Chairman David King said the amount of water traveling under the bridge has deteriorated it to the point where the bridge needs to be replaced. Selectman Jason Shaw noted that the town had recently received a letter from MaineDOT stating that the quality of the bridge was poor.

“You’ve got a huge amount of water coming out of here,” said Eric Calderwood of Calderwood Engineering. “It really made me concerned that you may wind up in a situation where a kid walking a dog winds up getting sucked into that. It’s got enough force coming out of there and there’s enough debris in there that I think you can trap someone in there and end up drowning them.”

More water currently flows through the culverts than the bridge was built for in 1934. According to King, that’s because around the year 2000 Bath Iron Works removed a flapper gate behind the bridge as part of a wetlands mitigation effort. That project has created a stronger flow through the culvert, said King, which he worries could sweep it out to sea.

BIW, which owned the bridge at the time, gave it to Woolwich in 2001.

Woolwich residents will vote at the special Town Meeting on whether to award Calderwood Engineering $19,000 to conduct an evaluation of the bridge. That money will come from undesignated surplus funds. The evaluation will explore the town’s options, including replacement, environmental permitting and a budget estimate.

“I think, at the very least, what needs to happen is a bridge removal,” said Calderwood.

Calderwood also suggested that the town should apply for grants from Maine Department of Environmental Protection and MaineDOT to offset the costs of any project.

“I think both of those maybe are a little bit of a longshot, but I think they’re worth checking,” said Calderwood.

MaineDOT is responsible for bridges 20 feet and longer in the state. Calderwood noted that the George Wright Bridge, which spans only 19 1/2 feet, should actually be longer and therefore applicable for DOT funding.

Additionally, Calderwood and the town expressed interest in asking

BIW to contribute funds to a bridge replacement.

“It doesn’t hurt to ask,” said Calderwood.

King laid the blame for the current situation clearly at BIW’s feet, saying that BIW’s decision to remove a flapper gate deprived the town of more than $200 in tax revenue annually and the deteriorating quality of the bridge.

“Back when the state gave BIW permission to take the flapper gate off, they never consulted the town of Woolwich over that, and the reason they gave us at the time for not consulting us was that it was their bridge,” said King. “Now that it needs hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of repairs, it’s our bridge.”

Calderwood noted that argument is undercut by the fact that the bridge, which was built in 1934, “is a very old bridge anyway.”

A further source of funding could come from the Bath Water District, as their water main goes right across the bridge.

Having the engineering done over the fall and winter would allow the town to start applying for grants early next year.

“Without the knowledge of exactly what we need done down there, we can’t apply for any grants or permits or anything else,” said King. “Once we get the engineering started and everything, we’re going to apply for grants from anybody and everybody that we can apply to.”

Selectmen voted unanimously to sign the warrant as soon as the additional item was added. The deadline for the warrant to be posted in time for the Sept. 5 special Town Meeting is Friday. The only other item on the warrant is a multi-year contract for ecomaine and Riverside Disposal to handle the town’s solid waste and recycling.