LACONIA — One of the city’s shortcuts will be disrupted this summer as repairs take place on the Messer Street bridge.
The work is scheduled to begin on Monday, May 22, and, according to Wes Anderson, the city’s Department of Public Works director, it could take five months to complete.
However, unlike the recent replacement of the Court Street bridge, which closed that section of the roadway to traffic, the Messer Street bridge will remain open to vehicles throughout the summer.
“It’s going to be alternating traffic,” Anderson said, meaning that workers will focus on one lane of the bridge at a time, leaving the other half open to vehicles. “It’s not a replacement job, it’s truly a repair job. The deck has some problems, we’ll have to take the surface off and do individual spot repairs anywhere that the concrete isn’t sound.”
About a third of the bridge was repaired several years ago, Anderson said, and he has allocated $700,000 in his department’s capital improvement budget to fund the repair. The project will be carried out by Busby Construction Services, with Evroks Corporation subcontracted to complete the concrete repairs.
The timeline for the project is estimated at five months, Anderson said, “depending on what we find when we take the top off.” Once the asphalt has been removed, the degradation to the concrete underneath will be fully revealed. If it’s worse than anticipated, the $700,000 won’t go as far, and the repairs will be concluded sooner, Anderson said.
“If we come through and we find we have more damage than we think, we’ll get that done and once the money’s gone, we’ll stop,” he said.
An electronic sign board near the bridge advises motorists to seek alternate routes to avoid the bridge, but Anderson said Messer Street should continue to be a serviceable alternative to busier streets for most of the day.
“I think the only time it may become an issue would be the morning or evening rush,” Anderson said. “Most of the day, there’s hardly any traffic on that road except for people trying to avoid the signals" on Union Avenue.
(1) comment
Makes a lot of sense to disrupt traffic two weeks before the 100th Bike Week.
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