Rick Albrecht

I have been trying to get an understanding of the history of the Reservoir Road Bridge (RRB) debacle. To date, I have only been able to get bits and pieces from BOS and RRB committee meetings. As far as I can tell there have been safety concerns going back 3-4 years. These issues were not followed up on until continuing concerns lead to the setting of weight limits per vehicle and then per axle. I haven't been able to find information as to whether there were recommendations on how to remediate, even if on a temporary basis, those safety concerns. The bridge was then closed because we were instructed to do so, but we can't find out by whom or when.

The town then needed to decide if the repair/replacement was going to be an in-house job or a federal project. We appointed the volunteer RRB committee to hire an engineering firm to help with setting the specs for the project and hiring the contractor. This is where we are now.

I agree that this is a significant inconvenience for the residents living in the Reservoir Road neighborhoods. But we must also recognize that the neighborhoods of the detour routes are inconvenienced by traffic as well. I believe that we should have investigated some relatively modest temporary re-enforcements such as street plates or a concrete deck to better distribute a vehicles weight. I am not an engineer but I'm sure there are other possible remedies that could have been studied. That did not happen so now the RRB it is closed.

As soon as it became evident that this was going to be a long term closure we should have put our own engineers to work to recommend alternatives and/or temporary fixes to allow at least a partial, one lane opening. That did not happen either. In light of the fact that we have now been told that a new RRB can not be completed until 2009 we should still consider looking into a reasonable cost effective alternative. (Funds would have to be approved through the proper channels so nothing would be forced down the taxpayers' throats.)

Going forward, I would never see something like this happening again. I would not ignore warnings so strong as to have a safety issue get this far out of hand. I have already discussed my plans to complete an inventory of all our infrastructure. This would enable us to schedule repairs and rebuilding projects with sufficient forethought to limit inconvenience.

I find it interesting that those bringing up the topic of 'bridge safety' have invoked the tragedy of the Interstate 35W bridge failure in Minneapolis. We are told that that massive replacement project is scheduled to be done before our Reservoir Road Bridge. Getting things done is important, getting them done right is imperative.