Meredith Center Road to be reduced to one lane during bridge work

MEREDITH — Five months of repair work begins today on a Meredith Center Road bridge that carries 3,800 vehicles per day, state Transportation Department officials said Monday.

The work will require the two-lane bridge over Wicwas Lake outlet to be reduced to a single lane for the duration of the project. Temporary signals will be placed on the road to control traffic while the repair work is being done.

The bridge, which is near the Wicwas Grange building and Sirles Road, was built in 1937. It is on the state’s “red list” of bridges that need major work.

Bill Boynton, spokesman for the Transportation Department, said the deck and superstructure are in poor condition.

Andy Hall, of the department’s bridge maintenance bureau, said the project will cost about $500,000.

“The deck is 80 years old,” Hall said. “It has served its purpose well.”

Crews will remove and replace the deck and the steel girders that support it.

The first step will be to demolish the concrete and pavement of the existing deck. A crane will lift out the old beams and the abutments will be reworked to accept new steel beams.

The new beams will not be painted but will have a patina coating of rust that serves to protect the steel.

“It’s called weathering steel and it seals off the surface from rusting any more,” Hall said. “The old beams were painted and over the last couple weeks, we scraped all the loose lead paint off it.”

A wooden platform was hung under the bridge to capture loose material. One side of the bridge will be worked on at a time to ensure one lane remains open throughout the project.  

Hall urged motorists to be careful around the construction site.

The posted speed limit in the area is 30 mph, but Hall said cars often seem to travel by at a much higher rate of speed.