Last year, the first year of the program,
two covered bridges were earmarked in Vermont; the Cambridge Junction Bridge and the Union
Bridge in Thetford. Two bridges had been selected by Munger and J. B. McCarthy for
the program this year, before the Power House Bridge was lost. These are the Greenbanks
Hollow Bridge in Danville, and the Sanderson Bridge in Brandon. "We'll still go for funds
specifically for your bridge," Munger said.
Several options for the Power House
Bridge were discussed.. Eric Osgood summed them up in a written statement following the
meeting:
Do nothing.
Install side rails on the remaining bridge
deck and open it to traffic and leave it as is.
Build a shell consisting of the walls and
roof.
Replace the remaining deck with an
authentic replica without steel beams.
Replace the shell consisting of the walls
and roof with a structure designed that would allow the steel beams to be removed.
The first option apparently, is not an
option."We had a petition handed in Monday night with 800 signatures on it to replace
the bridge, said Osgood. "So it's pretty obvious where the town is."
The Selectboard favored the fifth
option, that of building the sides and roof like the old structure, but designed so the steel beams
could be removed at a later date and the structure completed as a true covered Bridge. This
option has been an acceptable alternative for the VTrans Historic Preservation Division, said J. B.
McCarthy.
The town feels the need to open the
bridge quickly. This means opening the steel-beam supported wooden deck for traffic while the
new bridge is being planned. "Without that bridge you are creating a heavier load of waiting time
for coming on route 15," said Jewett. "At 5 o'clock a lot of people are [risking their lives] as far as
trying to get out of there. And the college [traffic] at that time, you've got to have the two
bridges, it really relieves traffic."
The town also wants the bridge back the
way it was, with the self supporting steel-beam supported deck."We'd like to rebuild to
look as like the old one as we possibly could, Delisle said. "And I'm quite sure Willie {Jewett] will
agree with me, our interest in this is maintaining it and the highways, we'd like to see the steel
back."
"The steel didn't show,"said Jewett.
"Even after the steel was put in, it was covered by the siding, so if you ever took a picture of it
you couldn't see the steel. The only thing you could see was the pipe underneath, you couldn't see
the steel beams. I mean it looks authentic. Even after the steel was put in and the deck was put
onto it. The emergency vehicles could use that if something happened. The height was so the fire
truck couldn't get through there but the ambulances could. It was 10 foot."
"I've been on the select board that
fought a lot of years to get the steel put in there," Reed said. "Because every time we did work on
this bridge, within ten years we've got to put $50,000 more in to redo the stringers and stuff in it
and that was getting to be an old story. I would hate to see the steel in the deck part taken out
and replaced with wood because that bridge gets a lot of traffic. From the college being in session
and from people coming into Johnson would rather go that way than go down through 100C
again There's a pile of traffic goes through there."
Osgood summarized the possible
funding sources in his meeting report: "State grant, Senator Bartlett and Representative
Woodward are currently working to secure; The present Covered Bridge Rehabilitate Program,
will require application and a 5% Town match; Senator Jeffords' securing an earmarked Federal
grant, this would be 100% funding but possibly as late as 2003 construction date.
"At this time we are going forward with
all three prospects with the guarantee of none, however very positive possibilities for all," Osgood
wrote. "A State grant would probably be the most quickest as far as getting construction
started and will be the first option we will know the prospects of acquiring. An earmarked grant
from the Federal government we would know in the September time frame, with a pay out in
2002, as well as the Covered Bridge Rehabilitate Program.
"The State has inspected the bridge and
found it to be safe and sound for traffic to cross it's deck. [J. B. McCarthy] will provide to the
Town within a couple of days the conceptual design and estimated cost of replacement for
Senator Bartlett to [present] for a State Grant. JB and/or Gil [Newbury] will provide to the Town
within a couple of weeks a design and requirements for a guardrail installation so the Town may
put this out for bid, and after completion, re-open the bridge to traffic."
During the technical discussion, Blaine Delisle added an interesting highlight on the collapse
of the bridge: "That day I was working and drove through it and it was kind of twisting like. We
had talked the night before, had looked it over, we were going to try to get the roof shoveled off.
Generally when it gets built up very much we give a donation to the firemen, and they go up and
shovel the roof off. We were in the process of working on it, getting them to do that. Thank god
we didn't, because I think if they'd gotten up there it would have collapsed . . . ."
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Joe Nelson, P.O Box 267, Jericho, VT 05465-0267, jcnelson@together.net
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Nelson
This file posted August 5, 2001, revised May 24, 2002