Word from state buoys bridge replacement hopes

News that Milton can tap into state highway grant money could mean a replacement project for the New Bridge Road bridge is more than a pipedream. (Lebanon Voice file photo)

MILTON - The state’s point person in Milton’s effort to launch a replacement project for the New Bridge Road bridge between Milton and Lebanon confirmed on Friday that the town could tap into state highway grant money to help offset the cost.

Article 10 on the 2014 Town Warrant asks voters to approve the raising and appropriation of $290,000 for highway and road construction projects, which would be offset by a state highways block grant of $110,000.

Milton can draw from this $110,000 grant for furtherance of the New Bridge Road bridge replacement project or any other town bridge project, said Nancy Mayville of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

Milton Budget Committee member Doug Shute asked if the grant money could be used for bridges at the town’s Deliberative Session last month and followed that up with a phone call to Mayville, who said the town, in fact, could.

Milton Selectmen Chairman Tom Gray said on Sunday that he had become aware of the development and was very pleased as it gives the town more options as it moves forward with the bridge’s possible replacement.

To that end another ballot on the Milton Town Warrant asks voters to let the town raise and appropriate $40,000 for the Milton/Maine Bridges Capital Reserve Account, which would presumably add additional funding for the project.

At a meeting held last summer officials from Lebanon and Milton met informally and seemed to settle on a two-lane truss bridge as the best possible option. A two-lane truss bridge would cost about $1.4 million, putting Milton’s full outlay at around $140,000 if it decides to go ahead with the plan.

Milton would need to pay about $15,000 in engineering costs associated with replacing the bridge to the state DOT in order to put it on a replacement list, Mayville said at that meeting. She said if that happens the bridge could possibly be replaced by as early as 2018.

Under the bridge funding formula, Maine pays half of the cost of bridge replacement, while New Hampshire pays 80 percent of the other half and Milton pays the remainder.

Of course Maine, which owns the Lebanon side of the bridge, would also have to approve its 50-percent share of the project cost, and the timeframe for possible replacement.