The Depot Street bridge has been one way since last March.
Photo credit: Jeremy Rice (file photo)

GRAFTON, Mass. - A new, cheaper solution has been chosen for repairing the sidewalk on the Depot Street Bridge in South Grafton.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation declared the bridge's sidewalk structurally unsafe a year ago, forcing the town to make the bridge one way. With the sidewalk closed off by Jersey barriers, there's only enough from for traffic to exit Depot Street from the Ferry Street side, with no entry from Providence Road. A makeshift sidewalk now stands in place of a second traffic lane.

Damaged and collapsing panels will be replaced and there is one beam that may need repairs. The project, in total, is estimated to cost $125,000, according to Town Engineer Brian Sczcurko.

In a survey conducted online on the town's website, a resounding 80 percent of 450 responses said residents valued having two-way traffic over having available pedestrian passage over the bridge.

Several other solutions had been considered, including building a separate foot bridge adjacent to the current structure.

The sidewalk repair will return two-way traffic to the bridge. Previous timelines had the bridge fully open by August of this year.

In addition to the repairs, the bridge will be put on the state's accelerated bridge program, which Sczcurko said, should have a replacement plan for the structure in place within the next 10 years.

The hope is that traffic can be maintained on the bridge as much as possible until the town is able to replace it, avoiding a situation similar to that of the Pleasant Street bridge. Now the subject of a $3 million lawsuit by the state, the Pleasant Street experienced problems for nearly a decade, first becoming one-way due to structural problems and then out of service entirely due to issues with the first contractor on the project.

"And that bridge doesn't have a sidewalk," noted chairman of the Board of Selectmen Peter Adams.