The Department of Transportation will hold a Zoom webinar Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 7 p.m. to describe plans for Smith Road bridge, which was washed out last year in a flash flood. The DOT planned to replace Smith Road bridge before the nearby Old Goshen Road bridge, but is now reevaluating its plan because Smith Road would better accommodate a temporary span.
Marc Byrnes, program manager for the DOT’s Local Bridge Program, said this week that the Smith Road breach would be easier to span with a temporary structure. “Our intent is to accelerate the process,” he said.
Construction of a temporary bridge would fall under the purview of the town and not the state, however, and no decision has yet been reached about whether it will be done.
Old Goshen Road was also destroyed during the flood and South Norfolk residents have grown impatient after a year of detouring around the breaches. They are demanding a temporary bridge to provide direct access to Route 272.
Design work for Smith Road began last fall and the DOT has been working its way through procuring documentation, preliminary surveys, soil analyses and the like. Byrnes said the biggest scheduling delays include negotiating relocation right-of-way purchases, procuring a federal flood management permit and an Army Corps of Engineers permit. “Those are long-lead items,” he said.
The design for the first bridge to be replaced will not be complete until next year with construction slated for the first quarter of 2026. At best, if 2025 produces a mild winter, work could start then. “We could investigate winter construction, but it would depend on temperature-reliant materials like cement. We want to make sure the town is not inconvenienced for a long period,” Byrnes said.
“The ultimate goal is not to have the same problem in 20 years,” he continued. “These are 75-year designs.” The bridges will be designed to handle the flow produced by the more intense storms resulting from climate change.
Ironically, the 68-year-old Old Goshen bridge, built in 1956 following the disastrous Flood of ’55, was a slapdash affair built with recycled boiler pipes. “It was a very economical design,” Byrnes observed.
The Smith Road bridge was built in 1999, probably as the result of a washout.
Byrnes said both bridges will be replaced through a program funded by the 2021 federal infrastructure bill. The money is channeled through the state, which pays 100 percent of permanent replacement costs. A temporary bridge would have to be purchased by the town, however.
Any permanent local bridge with a 20-foot span is part of the National Bridge Inventory even if owned by a town. This makes it eligible for federal funds.
The DOT website page for the project can be viewed here. To register for the webinar, click here.