Dear Editor,
We don’t need to spend $1.8 Million to “rehabilitate” Sherman’s Bridge. And we don’t need to close it for “3-6 months” to fix it.
Instead, all we need to do is replace the current timber decking.
Most of it has been there since the bridge was built in 1992. That’s 33 years – which is a pretty good run.
The 112-foot bridge has 127 10-inch wide (nominal 4” thick) wood planks laid out perpendicularly. That’s 2,540 board feet. I’m finding prices for rough cut 10×4 hemlock of $10-12 per board foot. So call it 2,750 board feet at $10 a board foot for a bulk buy: $27,500
We’ll also need 2,000 to 3,000 lag bolts and washers. I’m finding the lags (1/2” x 12”) for about two bucks apiece, and the washers are about a quarter each. Call it $35,000 for materials – better than $325,000 ($145 per square foot) for “GluLam”.
And these timbers survive being immersed in a flood.
The stringers they screw into are massive–17.5” high and 6.5” wide. And the state and the DPW attest they are in great shapeHowever, the DPW’s assertion, “There’s no place left for the lags to screw into” is total nonsense. There currently are a little more than two ½ “ lag holes per lineal foot in the stringers.
Lay the new boards out at an angle – so each board only has one wheel on it a time. Plug the old holes with epoxy filler. Position the new lag holes to avoid the old ones. With labor, in and out for maybe $100,000.
Close the bridge for perhaps two weeks to do it. And we won’t have to hire specialty contractors – and lease a barge – to perform routine maintenance later.
(But these may only last 33 years – as opposed to the claimed 40 for GluLam/asphalt. That 40-year claim is made by the same Wayland DPW that tells us our lightly-trafficked side streets need to be repaved every 15 years)
Put a weight limit back on the bridge along with a 15 mph speed limit and maybe the new timber deck will last 75 years.
Doug Stotz
Sherman’s Bridge Road
