(The following story by Kim Ring appeared on the Telegram & Gazette website on October 7, 2010.)
Buses also OK on Route 148, residents told
BROOKFIELD, Mass. — The raising of a railroad bridge on Route 148 won’t prevent emergency vehicles or school buses from crossing, but the road will be cut to one lane during the project and will close to all but buses and emergency vehicles for about a week, state officials said last night.
That news alleviated some of residents’ concerns that emergency vehicles and school buses would be essentially cut off from a majority of the town’s population on the south side of the tracks. But it still left one business owner wondering how customers would find their way to her restaurant, given the lengthy detour that’s planned.
CSX is raising several bridges and lowering some tracks along the rail line, including in West Brookfield and Spencer, so “double stacked” containers can be carried on the rails. The effect will be a reduction in truck traffic, officials said.
During construction, the process of crossing the bridge could slow response times in an emergency. Construction workers will be warned by radio of approaching ambulances or fire apparatus and the bridge will have to be lowered about an inch and a half so those vehicles can cross. That procedure will take between four and five minutes, John P. Fallon, design build project manager, said.
Paul F. Harrington, vice president of the Structural Division of Fay, Spofford & Thorndike of Burlington, said the bridge will be raised and shimmed in small increments so the worst case scenario would be the 1.5-inch lowering in an emergency. During the “jacking” crews will work 24 hours per day until the process is completed.
But the jacking process, which will start on a weekend and last about a week, has Nancy Salem of Salem Cross Inn concerned. The detour, which takes drivers 10 miles over some back roads, could mean her customers, some who come from the eastern part of the state, might have trouble finding the restaurant on Route 9.
“How do I get my customers to come?” she asked, adding that she might like to add signs for the inn near the detour signs. That, she was told, would be up to the towns involved.
Residents on Lower River Road were worried about added expenses to the town when the lower end of that street is closed. Because it is so difficult to drive up the hill in winter, James Milner who lives there, said the town will have to do extra work plowing and treating the road so residents can get out.
David Holdcraft wondered why the state hadn’t looked into a ground-level crossing that would move traffic off the bridge. He was told CSX Railroad frowns on bringing in the temporary signals, and getting such a crossing could take a few years.
The bridge, over which an average of 6,000 vehicles pass each day, will be closed to through traffic for between five and seven days, most likely in early December. It will be limited to one lane using temporary traffic signals during the rest of the project. Work is set to begin Nov. 1 and officials hope it will be completed next summer.