BELLOWS FALLS — The evening was a warm, fall night, with a full moon rising in the east. The water ran noisily beneath the concrete spandrels, as the leaves took on a golden glow from the setting sun. A large-winged predator swooped, hunting along the Connecticut River for its evening meal.
Food was laid out on the Vermont side of the Vilas Bridge and luminarias lined the concrete railing along both sides. A sign hung briefly from the bridge before it was torn away by the wind, saying simply, “FIX ME.”
People in the region want their bridge fixed, and approximately 30 of them came on Oct. 18 from Alstead, Walpole, Keene, and Rockingham to express that support.
In the wake of a rumor that the now-closed Vilas bridge had been moved off the to-do list of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) until 2021, local artist Abby Jones decided it was time to celebrate the bridge's heritage - and bring a little more attention to it in the process.
The historic bridge, which links Bellows Falls and North Walpole, N.H., was closed in 2009 due to safety issues.
The bridge is still on NHDOT current “red list” of bridges to fix, but it is not on the current draft Ten Year Plan, due to lack of funding for repairs.
A recent structural engineering study estimated that repairs for the 635-foot bridge will cost $6.5 million. The sluggish economy has made both state and federal funding harder to come by for bridge projects.
Officials in both Vermont and New Hampshire are working to find ways to fund the more than 30 bridges across the Connecticut River for which the two states share in varying degrees the responsibility of maintenance and repairs.
Jones explained that the motivation behind the dinner event “of a bunch of friends” - a group that included Keene, N.H. architect and bridge lover Daniel Scully - was an effort to assemble people from both sides of the bridge in the same spirit as the bridge was built in 1930 to symbolize: friendship between the New Hampshire and Vermont communities on both sides.
Jones, local attorney Ray Massucco on stilts, and Scully addressed the small crowd gathered around a table decorated with flowers and driftwood at the center of the bridge.
Jones told the crowd a bit about the history of the bridge, named for Charles Nathaniel Vilas, a businessman whose fortune came from running hotels in New York City.
Vilas, who lived in Alstead, N.H., invested heavily in community building. In 1904, when it became apparent that the wooden Tucker Toll covered bridge over the Connecticut was angering many on both sides with its tolls, it was “freed” for $20,000 in a joint buyout by Walpole and Rockingham, from its owner, Enoch Hale.
In 1930, it was replaced by a two-span, open-spandrel concrete arched bridge, now one of only a few left in the nation and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was funded by Vilas as a gift to symbolize “friendship” between the two communities.
Vilas provided the $66,931 to build the bridge, but he did not live to see its completion.
Jones, Scully and Massucco shared the same message: that this bridge was important to both communities, not just as a way to bridge the falls or for its architectural uniqueness, but because of its historical significance and its symbolism of the relationship between the two states.
Stalled plans
Today, the portion of the Vilas Bridge owned by New Hampshire begins at its side of the river and runs up to the Vermont high-water line - which means that 93 percent of the span's maintenance and upkeep lies squarely in New Hampshire's hands.
The bridge has been on the “red list” of bridges to repair since 2011.
A structural engineering study has been completed since, but the bridge has dropped off the 2015-2022 draft Ten Year Plan of projects due to lack of funds, according to J.B. Mack, a senior planner with the Southwest Regional Planning Commission (SWRPC) in Keene.
The SWRPC recommended last April, in a letter to NHDOT Commissioner Christopher Clement, that “if funding does become available for these projects, the SWRPC feels that it is appropriate for NHDOT to consider negotiation with the state of Vermont for that State to assume a higher cost share of the Vilas Bridge project connecting Walpole and Rockingham, Vt.”
“The basis for this recommendation is that the level of need and demand for this project by the communities and businesses of Vermont is every bit as strong as that of New Hampshire,” the letter explained.
Mack said, “I think New Hampshire is well aware of all these issues, and DOT is aware.”
According to Rockingham Development Director Francis “Dutch” Walsh, he and other business leaders are meeting with lawmakers and government officials on both sides of the river to find money for the project.
There is a possibility that Vermont will be able to contribute more to the project, he said.
Mack said that talks are happening “behind the scenes,” noting that the two states share “a number of crossings,” including the Vilas Bridge.
Mack noted that “it's the nature of sharing a bridge that it's part of their job to coordinate the capital improvement of these bridges that are either closed or on their way to failing.”
According to Mack, New Hampshire State Representative Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, is looking at sponsoring a bill that “would allow the two states to shift the cost structure of how the bridge is paid for.”
“But I am not sure it is actually necessary - just as a precautionary measure - if Vermont is able to pay more, closer to 50 percent of bridge.”
Vermont Agency of Transportation Secretary Brian Searles told The Commons, “Whatever happens, we need to be in the lead, and we are. This will eventually end up as some kind of negotiation as part of the 30 or more bridges we share across the Connecticut River.”
Searles said he has a meeting scheduled, tentatively for Thursday, Oct. 24, with the town officials who are pushing for the bridge to be fixed promptly.
“I want to hear from people about the importance of this bridge and get a better sense of where this bridge is in relation to other bridges physically.”
For his part, Walsh said that he was looking forward to meeting with Searles.
“We're moving in the right direction, but these things do take time,” Walsh said.