The Taylor Road bridge in New Ipswich has been out of commission for five years, and may still be for another eight, before the town can repair it with state aid.
Selectmen met with the engineering firm Hoyle, Tanner & Associates, last week to discuss potential options for moving up the reconstruction of the bridge, as the town has already approved its portion of the funding.
The Taylor Road bridge replacement project is eligible to receive 80 percent of its funding from the state’s bridge aid program.
In March, the town voted in favor of raising $137,000, or the remaining 20 percent of a total estimated cost of $685,000 for the bridge replacement.
Selectmen specified in the article that the funds would be non-lapsing, so that they would be available several years down the road, knowing it is likely the town would be on a waiting list for bridge aid for up to ten years before the replacement could be done.
But there are things that the town can do to speed up that process, and be ready for when it comes, advised Hoyle, Tanner & Associates representatives, who have worked with New Ipswich on three other bridge replacements in the past 15 years.
“Because the bridge is already closed, there may be an avenue to accelerate that,” said Matt Low, senior vice president of Hoyle, Tanner.
If New Ipswich applies for state aid now, because of the waiting list it would likely receive those funds in 2026, Low said. But there are other options if the town is interested in starting the project soon. Such as contracting for the engineering and design work, for which the town could be reimbursed by the state, for up to 80 percent, and then shelving the plans until the rest of the funds are available.
“There are some towns that have projects that are ready and waiting,” Low said.
If a municipality on the list isn’t ready when their turn comes – such as town meetings not approving the funds, for example – it’s likely that the state would look for a municipality that is ready, with funds and plans in hand.
Or, if the town needs the bridge to be in functioning order, it could move ahead with construction, financing the state’s portion for now and wait to be reimbursed in 2026.
Selectmen said the town has gone this long without Taylor Road being open to through traffic, and doubted that a full construction project would be palatable to the town, if reimbursement from the state is to come years later.
“I don’t think we’re in a rush to get the bridge replaced,” Selectman David Lage said. “It’s a bypass road, and there’s only a few houses on it.”
Lage said an increase in funding to the bridge program approved by Governor Chris Sununu might impact the timeline of current bridge projects. While the increase is about $10.4 million in additional funds, said Low, the average cost of a bridge replacement is about $900,000, which means the increase would likely only move up between eight and 12 bridge projects and would only shave a year off the waiting list.
Before Selectmen can make an official decision on whether to pursue an early design process, it must first apply and receive an official projected date from the state. It is currently working with Hoyle, Tanner on that process.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.