New Pepperell bridge taking shape
By By Don Eriksson
Lowell Sun, January 19, 2010
PEPPERELL -- Word that the covered-bridge restoration project is taking shape is spreading through town as rapidly as the Nashua River that runs below it.
And Lowell's S&R Construction workers continue to spend as much time as weather allows at the work site.
Working from a plywood-covered aluminum frame that hangs from I-beams spanning the cold river, workers have placed the bridge's main carrying beams and have started assembling the 700 pieces of solid timber superstructure with some of the 42,000 pieces of steel hardware used in the 95-foot-long, 47-foot-wide behemoth.
The longest support beams arrived from the Unadilla, N.Y., pre-construction site on Dec. 7. The first component was put in place Dec. 15.
A mid-2010 completion estimate from the Executive Office of Transportation changed last month, according to state Rep. Robert Hargraves and volunteer bridge watcher David Pease, whose updates are routinely entered on the town's Web site.
Last week, Pease told selectmen that he was told by workers just before New Year's Day that a seven-week schedule is more likely and the majority of work should be done in time for a dedication celebration in May.
Hargraves, who has applied pressure to design engineers and state budget planners about the project during the past decade, agrees.
"It's not going to take to mid-2010 to finish this, despite reports. They're going to keep this going," he told DPW Director Robert Lee during a recent site visit.
Speaking to firefighters at their holiday Christmas party, he said, "The bridge will take shape during the next few weeks, save the hot top. I'm finishing 15 years (in the Legislature) and I have more than a year to go. You'll always have our support in Boston."
A "Name the Bridge" campaign is being run on the town Web site where residents can enter their ideas.
One primary choice is "Prudence Wright Covered Bridge" in honor of the town's pre-Revolutionary heroine who led local women in capturing a British spy at the bridge as he headed for Boston with information about local gunpowder supplies. A second is simply "Pepperell Covered Bridge."
A suggestion was made at this month's selectmen's meeting to auction off the right to be the first vehicle to cross the new bridge.
Planning is under way for an historical park overlooking the river to be located on Department of Fisheries and Wildlife land beside the bridge.
The Pepperell bridge is the only remaining covered bridge in Massachusetts that is open to motor vehicles.
