Under a chilly, cloudy sky, a C.N. Brown heating oil tanker truck approached Clothespin Bridge in Webster.
After pausing at a stop sign, it trundled past the “Bridge Weight Limit 17 Tons” sign, as two distinct “ker-clunk” sounds emanated from the 63-year-old span.
They echoed over the rush of the Blackwater River and jarred what was otherwise a still, snow-muffled morning.
Clothespin Bridge is one of 324 municipal bridges red-listed by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation on its 2016 list, which was released last week.
When a bridge is red-listed, state DOT spokesman Bill Boynton said, “it basically means the bridge has deficiencies that need to be inspected more closely.”
The number of bridges has decreased slightly, from 338 to 324. During 2016, there were 29 bridges removed from the list, while 15 others were added.
Clothespin Bridge in Webster has been on the list for several years, but with a deck in “serious” condition, it isn’t in the worst shape. There are bridges in Andover, Bow, Newport and Wakefield that have had to close.
Webster is trying to take some action before getting to that point. Though the town has applied to get funding through the state’s bridge aid program, it’s unlikely Webster will get help in the next few years.
DOT municipal highways engineer Nancy Mayville said the $6.8 million annual aid program is backlogged at the moment.
“Currently, we’re programmed out into 2026,” Mayville said. With bridge replacements costing, on average, about $900,000, and with just several million dollars more in federal aid, Mayville said the state DOT gets to about 10 projects a year.
The funding program pays 80 percent of the bridge project costs for municipalities that qualify.
While funding is usually handed out on a first-come, first-served basis, Mayville said those that pose public safety concerns, are necessary for emergency services or are on a dead-end road usually get priority.
In the meantime, she’s seeing more and more towns apply to the program.
Clothespin Bridge doesn’t make the high end of the “to-fix” list. So Webster is trying to replace Clothespin Bridge on its own before the structure gets any worse. In addition to having a “serious” deck condition, N.H.’s DOT has ranked the substructure as “poor.”
After the C.N. Brown tanker truck drove over it Thursday, pot holes, plus a metal patch, were visible on the 73-foot deck.
Taxpayers voted to appropriate $75,000 last year to do engineering and other scoping work on the bridge. This year, the select board is asking for $75,000 more to put into its Bridge/Culvert Improvement Capital Reserve fund.
That’s where the town will set aside money to complete their project. A request for proposals went out in January, and the Webster select board met last week to discuss two bids for bridge construction, which is anticipated to begin in May.
The board has two distinct choices. Mike Bean, a contractor out of Sanbornton, proposed a $365,000, concrete-deck bridge. Mike Hansen of New London offered a $559,492 bridge made of steel beams and pre-cast concrete.
Erin Darrow of Right Angle Engineering helped the board evaluate the bids. While Bean obviously had the lower price, she said she was concerned about his proposal package.
“There’s really little detail about what he’s proposing,” Darrow said. She thought Bean’s might be lower because the contractor wasn’t planning to redo the bridge abutments, and Hansen was.
The proposal appeared to be the same one Bean gave Webster road agent Emmett Bean almost a year ago, when Emmett Bean went searching for a preliminary bridge quote. (The two Beans are not related).
While Hansen’s bid was more complete, Darrow noted it was much higher than the cost the town was planning for.
Without a clear answer, town officials decided to meet individually with each builder. Both were scheduled to meet with the select board and Darrow on Monday.
The town’s budget hearing – where this project will be presented as a warrant article – is scheduled for Feb. 14.
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@elodie_reed.)