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Glint of Winter
Mashamoquet Brook, off Taft Pond Road, sparkles in the winter sun. More photos on page 4. What isn't sparkling is the condition of the bridge --- the 3-ton limit is on the bridge again and officials are weighing the options for quick repair. Linda Lemmon photo.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET — Town officials expect to hear from engineers this week on the best and quickest recommendation to get the Taft Pond Road Bridge back on its feet — again.
In December, after state divers found some base material near the southern abutment been washed away, the state wanted the bridge closed. However they allowed the town to instead put a 3-ton limit on the bridge, according to First Selectman Maureen Nicholson.
The bridge had already had a 3-ton limit and had also been closed for an extensive renovation. State officials believe, judging by the tree debris downstream of the bridge, that the July storm had run a tree under the bridge, scraping away the material.
Nicholson said, divers also checked out the Bosworth Road Bridge. Material was also missing there but not as bad, she said. This is a bridge that washes over the road.
“The undermining is not as serious as Taft,” she said.
Because the repair to the Taft Pond Road Bridge needs to be addressed as quickly as possible, Nicholson said she does not believe that any grants could be obtained in time to help. “It needs to be fixed sooner rather than later,” she said.
Two possible federal grant programs out there that could have helped if the timing were better: The Infrastructure and Investment in Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. Both are federal programs. “The timing on those two isn’t going to match what we need for timing,” she said.
She added, “We’ll talk to the experts on how to fix it. They’ve got better ideas. The town would be looking for fixing not replacement for the Taft Pond Road Bridge. It will probably be a matter of shoring up and filling. “We hope it won’t be expensive.”
Bridges town wide and statewide are experiencing the same problems. Bridges that were built to last another 50 years are not, she believes because of the “volumes of water now going through and the chemicals we’re now using on the roads."
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