We welcome your visit, but please make an appointment so you don't make a special trip.

Directions to the office

We're at 139 Main St., Brattleboro, Vermont (the Hooker-Dunham Building).

Search The Commons from 2010 to present

News

A unique bridge for a unique vista

Agency of Transportation, contractors introduce public to new Interstate 91 bridge

By Olga Peters/The Commons

BRATTLEBORO—The view from Route 30 of the Interstate 91 bridges that span the West River between Exits 2 and 3 is scheduled for an up-cycle.

The two 50-year old towering steel-and-rivet bridges that traverse the West River will be demolished over the next few years and replaced with one concrete bridge that the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) touts as a pilot project on a fast timeline.

The AOT and design-build firms FIGG Engineering Group, of Florida, andPCL Civil Constructors, Inc., of Virginia, unveiled the designs for two new bridges on Interstate-91 July 23 at a well-attended public meeting in the Brattleboro Union High School multi-purpose room.

The project will also replace a smaller bridge over Upper Dummerston Road.

Demolition and construction begins October. The design-construction team anticipates completing the project in 2016.

Most large bridges take five years to replace. Planners say the Interstate 91 bridge is scheduled to take three years.

FIGG and PCL have dubbed the new, larger bridge as a “gateway to nature.”

The existing steel bridge has flaws in its design, said Matt Mann of the Windham Regional Commission (WRC). He explained that the bridge is held together by thousands of nuts and bolts, and can weaken.

“If even one gets loose and breaks, then a