Town eyes costs to get bridge replacement on track

Milton Selectmen Chair Tom Gray said today New Bridge Road bridge replacement could be just a little closer to reality. (Lebanon Voice file photo)

MILTON - Milton selectmen on Monday decided to reach out to New Hampshire Department of Transportation officials to find out what money Milton has to commit to put replacement of the New Bridge Road bridge on the state’s Bridge Replacement Program funding list.

In August of last year Milton Selectmen Chairman Tom Gray – with an eye to replacing the bridge - vowed to put a funding proposal on this year’s ballot, and townspeople overwhelmingly approved a $40,000 appropriation to the town’s bridge fund last month.

At the August meeting Nancy Mayville of the state’s DOT said engineering costs have been estimated at $150,000, meaning Milton would have to come up with 20 percent of $75,000, or $15,000, to get the bridge replacement ball rolling. 

A completed two-lane truss bridge is estimated to cost about $1.4 million, putting Milton’s full outlay at around, $140,000 if they decided to go ahead with the plan.

At the time Mayville said if Milton were to pay the $15,000 with assurances it was on board to pays its full share of the replacement bridge cost, it could be built as early as 2018. 

The New Bridge Road bridge formerly spanned the channel between Northeast and Milton ponds and connected the towns of Lebanon and Milton before it was condemned and removed in the fall of 2012.

Business owners like Jeff Everett of Everett’s Cover Marina have suffered financially with the loss of business due to the bridge’s removal, and many year-round and summer residents in this area of West Lebanon and Milton have pressed for the bridge’s replacement for both safety and convenience reasons.

The loss of the bridge has been also blamed for the closure of a Town House road convenience store.