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- Category: Current Issue
3 Pomfret
bridges
lined up to
be replaced
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET — The new federal local bridge program will be a 100 percent godsend to some bridge in Pomfret.
The town recently submitted three bridges for 100 percent paid-for bridge replacement, according to First Selectman Maureen Nicholson.
The federal Department of Transportation Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act program goes through the state. The federal government puts up 80 percent of the cost and the state pays the remaining 20 percent.
The three bridges submitted are:
The Taft Pond Road bridge, the Bosworth Road bridge and the Day Road bridge. She said they will cover one bridge per year and she expects projects will take a couple years to start.
It will take some time, she said, for the bridge projects to be researched. She said they do traffic studies, research the soil, the quality and the volume of water and much more.
The Taft Pond Road bridge, currently needing help again, is at a 3-ton, cars only limit again. Scour (where vicious storm water washes away some of the soil at the base of the supports) is a problem again there.
The Day Road bridge also has a problem with scour.
The Bosworth Road bridge needs replacement. She said the road needs to be raised. The challenge with this bridge is that it’s on a dead end road. Detours will be a problem.
Nicholson said the town has 24 bridges. Twelve of them are longer than 20 feet and the other 12 are shorter than 20 feet. A few years ago, the state stopped doing inspections on bridges shorter than 20 feet and ordered the towns to have them inspected.
She added that the town also has many culverts that need work.
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