WOOLWICH

The Nequasset Brook Bridge has likely seen the end of its days — as a public road that is.

On Monday, Woolwich selectmen voted to discontinue Town Landing Road, which includes the Nequasset Brook Bridge, as a public way. That order will be voted upon by residents at the upcoming annual town meeting on April 28.

The bridge is the sole access road to a single residence owned by Matthew and Amy Richard. If the road is discontinued, the bridge will become the responsibility of the Richards, who aren’t happy with that prospect.

From the town’s perspective, the bridge is simply too costly to continue maintenance and oversight for one property owner. According to Selectman David King, if the town wanted to perform any repairs on the 1964 bridge, they would be faced with the prohibitively expensive task of bringing it to DOT standards.

“We want to know what the town wants to do. Do they want to spend an awful lot of money to possibly replace that bridge at some point?” said Selectman Jason Shaw. “An obvious solution is to discontinue it, which is much less expensive.”

If the road is discontinued, added Shaw, it’s much cheaper to repair the bridge as a private bridge since it does not have to meet DOT standards.

According to Road Commissioner Jack Shaw, there is no immediate need to repair or replace the bridge. The decision to discontinue the bridge is based on the assumption that the bridge will have to be repaired at some point in the future, but whether that’s in five years or 20 is uncertain.

“It was pretty clear to me … that the bridge has quite some longevity,” said Dave Allen of Chesterfield Associates, who looked at the bridge for the town.

According to Allen, the bridge could be repaired privately for less than $100,000 whenever it reaches that point.

Richard, however, disputes the numbers drawn up by Allen, insisting that the stone substructure of the bridge is in dire need of repair. Matthew said that he has a quote that it would cost $240,000 to $290,000 to repair the bridge to private standards.

Allen called Richard’s estimates “way out of line,” noting that the abutments in question were not in a failing state.

The town recently hired a forensic appraiser to evaluate how the discontinuance of the bridge would affect the value of the property. According to the appraiser, the net effect would be the property dropping $48,000 in value.

In terms of compensation, the selectboard opted to award the property owners $75,000 in damages for the discontinuance of the bridge. King called the proposed damages fair.

There will be a second public hearing on the discontinuance order on April 2.

nstrout@timesrecord.com