Spanning from side to side – Weirs neighborhood to keep its wooden bridge

LACONIA — Bridges, it is said, show a simple philosophy: When you are on one side, you can easily move to the other side.

The people who live in a section of Weirs Beach, occasionally referred to as the Methodist Campground, got some good news this week when it was announced that the bridge which provides the main access to their property will not be torn down, but instead rebuilt. The result: It will continue to be easy for them to get from one side to the other.

City Councilor Bruce Cheney told Monday’s council meeting that the state Department of Transportation has put money into the budget for the state’s 10-Year Highway Plan to fund the refurbishing of the wooden humpback bridge after which it will be turned over to the city.

The 120-foot-long span has, for several years, been on the red list of state-owned bridges, which because of the magnitude of their structural defects need to be inspected twice a year.

For 80 years the bridge has been the main access to the homes and summer cottages along a network of tight streets on the opposite side of the railroad tracks and which lead down to the Lake Winnipesaukee shoreline north of the Winnipesaukee Pier.

In the late 1800s, 13 acres along the shoreline were purchased as a place for Methodists to hold their summer religious meetings. By the 1890s the area became thickly settled with cottages and cabins. Over the years the buildings have been sold off. While the area has not manifested a religious character for years, many people still call it “the campground.”

“This bridge is critical to public safety and the ease of the residents,” Cheney said.

The bridge was first slated for eventual removal under the state’s 10-year highway plan issued in 2019. Cheney said the matter was brought up when DOT officials held an information session in Laconia late last year. Executive Councilor Joe Kenney was among those attending the session.

Cheney said at the conclusion of that meeting he approached the DOT representatives and proposed that instead of tearing the bridge down, that the state rehabilitate the bridge and then turn the span over to the city.

The state will pay for the cost of engineering and construction of the new bridge, but it will be the city that will oversee the work, City Manager Scott Myers explained. The state has estimated the cost of the project at $1.4 million.

The engineering phase is slated for 2023, with actual construction to take place two or three years later, according to state DOT spokesperson Eileen Meaney.

Had the bridge been removed, those driving to and from the Centenary Avenue area would have had to use a grade crossing at the intersection of Centenary Avenue and Lakeside Avenue near the Akwa Marina Yacht Club.

Charlie St. Clair, as executive director of Laconia Motorcycle Week, knows the traffic patterns in that part of the city. He said pulling out of Centenary onto busy Lakeside can be dangerous. Use of a second access point near the Weathervane Lobster in the Rough restaurant is restricted to emergency vehicles during the summer months when the area is busiest, he said.

St. Clair gave credit to Cheney for getting the state DOT to alter its plan and to support rehabilitating the bridge.

“He’s the hero in this,” he said.

Myers said that the new bridge should have a lifespan of about 100 years. But he stressed that being a wooden bridge it will need frequent inspection and periodic repairs, such as the replacing of decking or other components.

According to the DOT Historic Bridge Inventory, the Centenary Avenue Bridge was constructed in 1940 to replace a bridge that had been put in in the 1890s. The timber stringer bridge is typical of overpass bridges built by the Boston & Maine Railroad during the first half of the 1900s. New timber decking was installed on the bridge in 2016 or 2017.

DOT became responsible for maintenance of the bridge about 20 years ago, Meaney said.