BRUNSWICK — A decision about whether the Frank J. Wood Bridge is added to the National Register of Historic Places is expected to be delayed until spring.
But the delay will provide more time for work by a Brunswick-Topsham committee charged with making design recommendations for a potential replacement bridge, Linda Smith, Brunswick’s manager of economic and community development, told the Town Council on Dec. 19.
The Maine Department of Transportation last April announced its intention to replace the bridge, which carries Route 201 from Brunswick to Topsham. It isn’t clear whether a place on the historic register would keep the MDOT from following through.
The structure is under review by the Federal Highway Administration, which determines historic status and is expected to fund around 80 percent of the project, MDOT project engineer Joel Kittredge said in September.
Based on conversations she has had with the MDOT, Smith said the FHA plans to hold a public hearing in advance of the decision about historic designation.
In an email, Kittredge said the FHA “is required to avoid, minimize, and mitigate potential effects of a project to a historic resource’s integrity or significance.” But its decision would not prevent demolition or alteration, so listing of the Frank J. Wood Bridge would not necessarily prevent its replacement, she said.
Opponents of replacement — who have united under the citizens group Friends of the Frank J. Wood Bridge — hope that listing the 85-year-old green truss bridge on the register will persuade decision-makers to rehabilitate the structure instead of demolishing it.
In mid-November, residents of Topsham’s Summer Street — a registered historic district along the Androscoggin River with homes that overlook the bridge —submitted a letter arguing that removing the bridge would impinge on the historic nature of their neighborhood.
This argument borrowed logic employed by members of Friends, who at an Oct. 27 meeting portrayed the bridge as an essential component to the historic nature of the surrounding areas.
In a phone call Dec. 22, Smith said she wasn’t sure how the MDOT could still go forward with a replacement if the bridge is added to the historic register.
Rather, she said the process is the “first substantive input” in a series of reviews that would come together like strands in a braid.
Although the Brunswick Town Council has not taken a position, Smith supports a plan that would replace the crossing on a repositioned upstream alignment because it would have the least adverse impact on local businesses near the bridge.
Based on conversations she’s had with DOT, Smith said replacing the bridge would decommission the crossing for four to eight weeks while work is done on the ties.
Rehabilitation, on the other hand, could shut off the area for months, she said. The overall cost of rehabilitation could cost nearly twice as much as replacing it with a concrete alternative over the course of the bridge’s life cycle, according to analysis by the engineering firm T.Y. Lin International.
The Topsham Board of Selectmen endorsed the DOT’s replacement plan last spring.
Smith sits on the Design Advisory Committee, composed of interested parties from Brunswick and Topsham, and has spent the past six months collecting input that will inform design recommendations the towns would like in a new bridge.
Smith told the council on Dec. 19 that the postponed FHA verdict will give the panel time to develop and submit recommendations for the DOT. They hope to have them ready by March.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
