TOPSHAM

The Frank J. Wood Bridge will be replaced.

Maine Department of Transportation announced this week that, pending an environmental assessment, they will move forward with plans to replace the aging 86-year-old structure.

On Wednesday, Federal Highway Administration’s Cheryl Martin told members of Friends of the Frank J. Wood Bridge that alternatives to replacing the bridge are no longer being sought.

“We’re past that point at this point in time,” she said.

The Friends group went so far as having an independent engineer study a rehabilitation option, but was unable to raise enough money to pay for a full report and distribute it.

“In our engineer’s report there was an alternative that he suggested that’s been done in Massachusetts,” said Friends President John Graham. “His initial thoughts were it would be on par with the new bridge.”

The report, which proposed leaving the bridge as is but reinforcing it with steel, estimated the cost of that option would be on par with life-cycle costs of a new bridge.

It was submitted to the transportation department, and Bill Pulver of the DOT’s project development bureau said it was reviewed by their engineers, as well as consultants.

“There was not enough analysis in detail in that report for our engineers to conclude the feasibility from a cost perspective or even a design perspective,” Pulver said.

Looking to the past, future

The Brunswick-Topsham Design Advisory Committee has been looking at future designs for the area, once the bridge it replaced. Committee member Doug Bennett said the committee would like to see a park added to the Topsham side of the bridge, noting that parks at either end would provide sites to honor the history of the area. The committee also would like to see the economic use of the river honored.

“It (the report) spends a fair amount of time on what the ends of the bridge would be like and what the opportunities for connecting the bridge well to the park that already exists on the Brunswick side,” said Bennett. “We talked about a number of things that ought to be included in mitigation. We should lift up the unusual ecology of the river. We should also lift up the indigenous people’s use of the falls site in a way our towns are not yet doing.”

To honor the Frank J. Wood Bridge itself, he said pieces of the structure could be used in the parks.

Bennett’s comments were largely the extent of constructive dialogue about how history could be honored, as some consulting parties are still unhappy with how the process has unfolded.

“I would like to observe the absence of solutions for mitigation speaks for itself,” said Christopher Closs of Maine Preservation. “Most of us are still following the normal procedure of your process, I think that this segment of your meeting is entirely inappropriate.”

The DOT will seek feedback from the public as well in terms of how to acknowledge the impact on the historic structure until July 11.

A new bridge, to be curved on an upstream alignment, will have an open design much different from the current bridge. Travel lanes will remain 11-feet wide, but 5-foot shoulders and 5-foot sidewalks will be incorporated into the design; currently there is a 2-foot shoulder with 2 feet of open grid on each side.

The Department of Transportation’s cost estimate for the new bridge is $13 million initially, with a 100-year service life cost of $17.3 million.

In contrast, repair options ranged from $15-17 million in initial costs and $35.2 and $38.2 million service life-cycle costs.

Martin said the environmental assessments still need to be undertaken before plans for the new bridge are finalized and construction begins.

“The final (National Environmental Policy Act) decision will not occur until later this summer,” she said.

Meanwhile, the state will look at what impacts a new bridge will have on nearby historic sites such as the Cabot Mill and Pejepscot Paper Company building.

chris@timesrecord.com