Bow’s biggest proposed infrastructure project for this year has residents divided over whether repairing a bridge will improve their quality of life.
The Birchdale Road bridge over White Brook has been closed since July 2015 after an underwater inspection of the bridge showed it had critical structural deficiencies, and is included on the state’s Department of Transportation’s red listed bridges. The town has included $773,900 in their capital improvements budget to fix the bridge, which will go before voters in March. According to town documents, $664,000 of the project will be paid for by state bridge aid, which would be available by fiscal year 2025. If approved, Bow Town Manager David Stack said the bridge would be reopened by fall.
But some residents are not looking forward to the bridge’s possible reopening, saying their lives have been much better since the bridge was closed. Loren Martin, who has lived on Birchdale road for 12 years, said the road used to see heavy amounts of high-speed traffic before the bridge was closed, making it dangerous for her family to walk or play outside. She said walking on the road was akin to “taking your life in your hands.”
“My kids had friends on either side of the bridge, and they used to want to ride their bikes to their houses,” Martin said. “But they couldn’t do that, because it wasn’t safe.”
Martin also said her house was checked out by potential thieves about five years ago, who were able to see into her house because it is located down a hill from the road. But now only local traffic frequents the road, and generally obeys the posted 30 mph speed limit, she said.
Linda Barry also enjoys the reduced traffic and wouldn’t mind the bridge staying closed, except for the fact that she has a daughter in middle school. And the closed bridge means Barry has to brave Clinton Street traffic which she said is always extremely busy and hop on Interstate 89 whenever she has to go to or from Bow Memorial School or the town center. It’s a much longer commute, she said, than if she was able to get to the school via Page Road.
Barry, who has lived on Birchdale Road for 11 years, said the blocked-off bridge also means school buses take longer to get to her house in the morning, and sometimes her daughter is late to school because of it.
And Kevin Jenkins, who helps run a farm stand on Birchdale Road, said the bridge closure has made it difficult to advertise for the stand due to the limited traffic. He was also concerned that several elderly residents on the Page Road side of the bridge would be in danger if a medical emergency occurred.
“What if something happens and you have to take a longer route to drive to Concord Hospital?” he said. “And you’re in New Hampshire – what if it’s snowing like hell? You could really be in trouble.”
Traffic concerns were a big talking point for Bow residents who attended an Oct. 11 select board meeting, according to the meeting’s minutes. A Birchdale Road resident named Tim Morrison said cars usually drove 40 to 60 mph on the street prior to its closure, and suggested the money for the bridge go toward the new public safety building. Another resident, Jim Barker, who said he owns a lot adjacent to the bridge site, said people in the neighborhood are able to walk and cycle through the area, something he said was not possible before.
Though sympathetic to residents’ concerns, Stack said the bridge must be fixed not only because of its structural concerns, but because it is surrounded by other red listed bridges in need of repair.
According to Edward Roberge, Concord’s city engineer, the city has an $800,000 repair for another bridge on Birchdale Road, which crosses the portion of Bela Brook in Concord. The city is also looking to repair a bridge on Hooksett Turnpike, a road that runs parallel to Birchdale Road and through Concord and Bow.
Even if all three aforementioned bridges failed, there would still be Page Road, which both roads connect onto and which connects to Clinton Street and White Rock Hill Road in Bow. However, that road also has a red listed bridge which crosses over Bela Brook – and if that bridge failed, as the White Brook bridge did, residents would be completely cut off from the Concord area, Stack said.
Roberge said his department is waiting to see whether the Concord Birchdale Road bridge project will be funded by the state, as well as whether the Concord City Council will approve the project before reaching out to Bow about their construction plans. He said the city’s Birchdale project design would probably begin in the summer if both municipalities’ Birchdale projects were approved so as to not inconvenience residents.
“We have to be careful not to trap residents between two culverts,” he said.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)