West Newbury Town Manager Angus Jennings doesn’t mince words when he talks about the Plummer Spring Road/Middle Street bridge repair project.
“We don’t have time to waste,” Jennings said. “It’s now or never.”
The bridge, an important link between West Newbury and Newburyport, was closed in August 2019 after a failure in the spandrel wall.
The bridge sits on the border between the two communities, and each shares a legal obligation to maintain and repair the structure.
Efforts to secure funding to rebuild the bridge have been underway for six years, according to Jennings.
On June 11, town and city officials, including Jennings, Newburyport Mayor Sean Reardon and Newburyport City Council President Ed Cameron met with Sen. Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, the District 4 engineer and a representative from the state Department of Transportation to work out an intermunicipal agreement, or IMA, between the communities.
After what Jennings termed a “good and frank discussion” at the meeting, a draft agreement is now in the hands of Newburyport’s mayor and City Council.
At a City Council meeting Monday, Cameron sponsored a motion to send the draft to Newburyport’s Public Works & Safety Committee.
Cameron spoke briefly, indicating that the bridge has been in decline since 2017.
“We’ve got to decide what our role will be in finalizing the IMA, which we need to do whether we decide to share in funding or not,” he said.
Cameron acknowledged that the project comes with “a fair amount of urgency” but said the council and committee members will gain a better understanding of the bridge project’s specifics “over the next couple of committee meetings.”
The council agreed unanimously to send the motion to the committee.
After a review, the city will decide if it will share costs with West Newbury and what amount, if any, Newburyport would allocate for the project.
Newburyport received two MassDOT Small Bridge Program grants in 2018 totaling $293,952, according to the draft agreement. These grants are due to expire Sunday without an extension from the state.
Earlier this year, Newburyport was awarded a third Small Bridge grant of $750,000. West Newbury was awarded a $1 million MassWorks grant of $1 million in late 2023 and a $750,000 Small Bridge grant in early 2024.
A construction cost estimate for the necessary bridge work comes in at about $3,605,000, with an added 25% construction contingency fee of $901,250.
A resident engineer fee of $200,000 and a construction engineering services charge of $100,000 brings the total remaining project costs to roughly $4,806,250.
These numbers do not include previous design/permitting costs of approximately $500,000 (the project has been fully permitted since May 2023). The amount of remaining net local costs totals $2,012,298.
With a 50% cost share, each municipality would be responsible for $1,006,149 beyond what has been already apportioned.
West Newbury’s town manager expressed a sense of urgency in the project because of safety concerns related to the bridge’s infrastructure and the possible loss of grant funding if a cost-sharing resolution is not reached quickly.
Jennings believes the bridge repair would prevent further erosion and possible liability should the hole in the spandrel wall not be fixed.
In the future, Jennings said, “emergency funding would be needed for cleanup” if the bridge is further compromised.
“There’s a cost to doing nothing,” he said.
Jennings’ concerns about a loss of funding stem from the American Rescue Plan Act requirement that the project needs to be under contract by the end of this calendar year; grants awarded must be spent by the end of 2026.
Once the funding is received and the two municipalities have agreed on a cost share plan, the project can go out to bid.
Contracts are typically awarded 30 to 60 days after the requests for bids go out. To stay within the timeframes for funding, Jennings and West Newbury would like the contract to be awarded this summer, with construction to start next spring.
West Newbury officials are continuing to move forward optimistically. They are fine-tuning procurement documents in preparation for sending out the request for proposals.
They plan to update the town website with a public post informing residents of the project’s status.
Jennings reported “a tremendous amount of support” for the project in West Newbury, with many resident writing letters to endorse the project.
In spite of what appears to be an “overpass impasse,” Jennings said he is hopeful that a final agreement can be reached between the two communities in the interest of the shared public good.
“If we’re aligned in our intent to go forward, we can get this done,” he said.