A second public hearing on the proposed new Hinsdale-Brattleboro bridge is set for Thursday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. at the Hinsdale Town Hall, 11 Main St.
The Town Hall will be open a half hour before the hearing, so the public can get a look at the plans for the new bridge.
Interested land owners, local officials, and highway users are welcome to attend and express their comments about the project, which is tentatively scheduled to be put out to bid in mid-September.
The new bridge will replace two current spans on Route 119 that connect Brattleboro to Hinsdale and are nearly 100 years old. The two bridges have been on the New Hampshire Department of Transportation's radar for major upgrades for about 40 years, ever since officials first identified serious deficiencies with the spans.
At a public hearing in Brattleboro in September 2017, NHDOT Project Manager Don Lyford said the plan “is in final design now.”
But drivers expecting a new bridge to go up soon will need to be patient. Lyford said construction isn't expected to begin until 2020 and may take about two years to finish.
The design being considered is a new, steel I-beam girder bridge with a concrete deck and an asphalt surface, located about 1,000 feet south of the current bridge.
Plans for the new bridge show two 12-foot travel lanes - one heading in each direction - with an 8-foot shoulder on each side and a 6-foot-wide sidewalk on the upstream side. Each end will have an 11-foot turning lane. In comparison, the current structure - composed of two bridges, separated by an island - is 20 feet wide.
In Brattleboro, the bridge will connect with Vermont Route 142 at 94 Vernon St., which requires an eminent domain seizure and demolition of the building at that address.
The intersection of the west end of the bridge and Route 142 will have a traffic light. Drivers heading south on Route 142 will have a left-turn and a through-lane. Coming off the bridge, drivers will have left- and right-turn lanes. The bridge will connect with the Hinsdale side near Mountain Road and Norm's Marina.
NHDOT officials said in September that they expect little direct effect on traffic in downtown Brattleboro during construction.