The Charlotte Selectboard has hired a contractor to fix a large hole on the Dorset Street bridge that has rendered the structure unsafe.
Parent Construction of Hinesburg plans to install a steel plate attached to the concrete deck and pave over it. The fix should be completed by the end of next week, Town Administrator Dean Bloch said Thursday. Until then, the bridge will remain closed.
The project will cost Charlotte $21,300, which will come from the town’s operating budget. The selectboard is also considering a weight limit for the bridge and expects to apply for a grant to replace the entire deck next year, Bloch said.
The bridge has been closed to traffic since April 25, with piles of sand placed at both ends. The hole has been closed with gravel and temporarily marked with planks and cones.
The selectboard held a special meeting Monday to discuss the damage to the 88-foot-long bridge over the LaPlatte River.
“The bridge is not passable,” board chair James Faulkner said. “It’s too dangerous.”
The state’s bridge repair schedule does not call for work to be done on what’s called Charlotte Bridge 31 for another seven years, so the town will have to apply for a grant to pay to fix it.
Given the timeline, that may not happen until next spring, Faulkner said.
Board member Louise McCarren, who went to check out the hole on Monday, urged action.
“There’s no question, in my personal view, that this is a critical thing that this selectboard needs to do to get this bridge fixed for the people who live in the community,” she said. “We’ve got to get it done.”
While also supporting an application for a more permanent repair, town road commissioner Hugh Lewis Jr. suggested a temporary fix and a weight limit — maybe 15 tons — for now that would allow school buses to cross.
“I think we should fix it sooner rather than later,” Lewis said.
Lewis said he is also concerned about the speed vehicles reach when they come down the hill leading to the bridge. The speed limit there is 25 mph but not generally enforced, members said.
One area resident at Monday’s meeting suggested a four-way stop at Carpenter Road to help slow vehicles down before the bridge.
Selectboard member Lewis Mudge said he was concerned about approving a five-figure spending item on the eve of a special election to vote again on a proposed town budget that was rejected in March. That reworked $2.7 million spending plan passed the next night.
“There are a handful of things the town has to do that are critical and this is one of them,” McCarren said. “The folks who live on Dorset do not have to drive around so this is fundamental. I understand the angst over the budget but this is fundamental.”
Board member Frank Tenney also urged fixing it immediately, saying he drives a school bus over it every day for the Champlain Valley School District.
The board unanimously agreed to repair the bridge, deeming it an emergency situation.