The impact to traffic through the region to accommodate a truck detour for the Route 9 bridge project in Sullivan will continue for two to three more weeks, according to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.
The reopening of the Route 9 bridge in Sullivan has been delayed, Mark Moran of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation Construction Bureau said Monday.
The reopening was to have taken place last week, he said. At this point, Moran said he hopes to reopen the bridge to traffic on Nov. 15 or at least before Thanksgiving Day.
“At this time of year you don’t know what Mother Nature is going to throw at you,” Moran said. “My objective is to have it reopen before Thanksgiving.”
Since late March bridge traffic in Sullivan has been rerouted locally to accommodate the bridge closure and commercial trucking traffic has been detoured from Hillsborough to Keene, and vesa versa, through the towns of Antrim, Bennington, Hancock, Peterborough, Dublin and Marlborough via routes 202 and 101.
Moran said the bridge project, which is slated to be completed in July, remains on schedule. It is the reopening of the bridge to traffic that is off track due to unforeseen issues such as large boulders that had to be broken up at the site of the new bridge abutments.
The project is part of an ongoing Highway Improvement Project on Route 9 between the Granite Gorge Ski Area in Roxbury and the Centre Street intersection in Sullivan. The project spans about 2 miles of Route 9 and includes utility relocations, full roadway reconstruction with drainage and guardrail improvements, and steep slope excavation and slope stabilization efforts.
R.S. Audley Inc. of Bow is the general contractor for the $13.5 million dollar project.