OXFORD — The town intends to repair a bridge deemed unsafe by the Maine Department of Transportation, but may still consider discontinuing maintenance on the road the bridge is on.
Town Manager Michael Chammings told selectmen meeting Thursday that the repair cost is about $6,000, half of which is permitting fees.
The George Yeaton bridge, which crosses Greeley Brook on Mapledale Road, was declared unsafe by MDOT last month. According to the department, the bridge may be at risk of failure if a future storm brings water high and fast enough to cause more damage to its abutments.
Mapledale Road, on the southern end of the Gore Road, is a dead-end road that leads to a single house. When the bridge was classified unsafe, selectmen initially moved to discontinue maintenance on it altogether.
At a meeting earlier this month, Chammings notified the board he intended to survey the extent of degradation with an engineer and get estimates for repair costs.
On Thursday, Chammings said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had jurisdiction over the bridge and the town was working with engineers from Main-Land Development Consultants to get permits to begin work. He estimated that permitting alone would cost $3,000.
The town intends to install partially ground “riprap” — stone rubble — to reinforce the bridge abutments. When the project is finished, the bridge will no longer be unsafe and the town will not have to monitor it, Chammings said.
According to the MDOT’s plan for bridges in such condition, towns affix reflective stickers to the abutments at different heights — if water passes above the first sticker, the bridge needs to be monitored every 24 hours. If it passes above the second, the bridge has to be closed to traffic.
Even if the town fixes the bridge, there is no guarantee it will not move forward to discontinue maintenance on the road, Chammings said, responding to a question from the audience Thursday.
“I would think any road like that is always susceptible to closure when it’s only serving one house,” he said.
Comments are no longer available on this story