PUTNEY — How the proposed Route 119 bridge to Hinsdale will impact traffic flows in downtown Brattleboro was a question asked, but not answered, at the public informational meeting in the Brattleboro Municipal Center on Sept. 14.
New Hampshire Department of Transportation engineers delivered an excellent presentation and answered other questions.
Representatives of the Vermont Agency of Transportation, Windham Regional Commission, and the town of Brattleboro were present but did not participate in the presentation and discussion. Nevertheless, they are responsible to Vermonters for the Vermont portion of this bridge and its approaches.
Asked directly how it will impact traffic flows in downtown Brattleboro, a VTrans engineer told us that an interstate agreement makes NHDOT responsible for design and construction of this bridge in both states.
NHDOT engineers told us that their responsibility does not include traffic flows in downtown Brattleboro.
This bridge must pass 23 feet above the railroad beside Route 142, which must be elevated between Royal Road and the Marlboro College parking lot to 10 feet higher at the bridge intersection.
It seems that the bottoms of the high and historic stone retaining walls supporting South Main Street properties may be buried, subjecting them to undermining by underground water freezing and thawing. How will they be protected?
This bridge also will pass above employee-owned Barrows & Fisher Oil Co. (since 1887), necessitating demolition of their central buildings. How will their investment and livelihoods be protected?
We know that large trucks avoid the very narrow, existing bridges, but they will not avoid this much wider, proposed bridge. We also know that the Bridge Street railroad crossing will remain.
So how will this proposed bridge impact traffic flows in downtown Brattleboro, already frozen when Main Street traffic is heavy and the next traffic light turns red when a traffic light turns green?