Haverhill’s new Rosemont Street bridge, sporting a traditional look with, what are called, “Texas Rails,” could be about two weeks from opening after the Little River crossing has been closed a year.
Haverhill City Engineer Lisa E. DeMeo told WHAV there are still three components to be completed—installing guardrails on both sides, National Grid’s relocation of electric lines from a temporary bridge to utility poles and restoration of four riverbanks.
“I’m not comfortable letting any cars go over it until the guardrails go up. If the guardrails go up and we still don’t have a date from National Grid, I may let them open it. The time frame that National Grid is doing its relocation, it will have to be closed because they will have trucks in the street. But, if they tell me they can’t get there for three weeks, I’ll let the bridge be open once the guard rails are on,” she said.
The city engineer added riverbank restoration can also be undertaken later. “That can happen anytime and that’s not holding up the opening of the bridge. The other two are,” DeMeo explained.
A year ago, officials estimated the new bridge would be open during the summer. DeMeo said, “We pretty much were ready before school started, but then we knew National Grid wasn’t coming in so the crews took their time. It was definitely utilities. Utilities delayed the whole work at the beginning and utilities delayed it at the end.”
She said the guard rails should go up this week and not take long to complete. DeMeo noted National Grid previously moved its gas line from the temporary bridge to the new bridge, but has yet to move the electric lines
Public Works Director Robert E. Ward said Monday the $4.4 million bridge—paid entirely from President Joseph Biden-era federal American Rescue Plan Act money—is longer and wider and almost ready for motorists.
“There still have some work to do even after they start allowing traffic on it…the city and contractor worked pretty well together. I think the contractor did pretty good with it,” he said.
Worcester-based BETA Group, engineering, and Kodiak Corporation of Lawrence, contractor, were tasked with designing and building the new structure along a 90-foot section of Rosemont Street near the New Hampshire border. According to plans, what had been a 16-foot, eight-inch single span bridge was replaced with a nearly 36-foot-long structure.
In addition, environmental features include a widened “stream width that mimics the natural upstream and downstream reaches of the Little River,” a dry passage for wildlife and restored banks on both sides under the bridge. DeMeo cited turtles as an example of wildlife that can now travel under the bridge rather than being forced to cross the road.
Rosemont Street, which runs between Hilldale Avenue and Main Street, was often used as a shortcut around a frequently jammed stretch of upper Main Street, from Interstate 495 to the Plaistow, N.H., border.
An assessment of the old, 1934-era bridge noted “extensive deterioration, spalls and posts that are undermined and failed. The abutments exhibit areas of scaling, exposed and rusting steel reinforcement, water abrasion, cracking and areas of delamination. The stone wingwalls have failed due to areas of undermining and erosion.”
In 2018, former Mayor James J. Fiorentini called the bridge “most in need of replacement, after the East Broadway Bridge,” and the city planned to make $650,000 in temporary repairs. Despite the attention, the city was forced to restrict its width in 2020.