The Main Street Bridge will now be closing two lanes of traffic, restricting traffic down to a single one-way lane of travel, this coming Monday, assistant to the town administration Alison Kreutz said Wednesday.
Traffic on the bridge was to have been restricted down to one lane on Wednesday, however, due to the holiday on Monday, Dig Safe – a not-for-profit clearinghouse that notifies participating utility companies – needed more time as did necessary prep work required to ensure the closure has adequate signs for motorists, so it was decided to push the partial closure to this Monday, she said.
Starting Monday traffic will only be allowed to enter the bridge from Route 202, Kreutz said. Traffic leaving downtown from Main Street is being detoured to Grove Street to Route 101, traffic can then turn left onto Route 101 to reach Route 202 North.
After the partial closure is in place work is expected to begin on installing a pedestrian bridge that will connect the downtown to the library property.
Then starting in March the bridge is scheduled to be completely closed to all vehicle traffic. At that point traffic traveling to downtown Peterborough from Route 202/Concord Street will be directed past the bridge, onto Granite Street, directed to turn right onto Route 101 and then right onto Grove Street to access downtown.
“We are expecting to see an uptick in traffic on Hunt Road and Summer Street,” she said, though that is not the official detour for the bridge closure.