WESTBROOK – The Cumberland Mills bridges have reopened to
regular traffic, but after a large hole was discovered in one of
them by state workers last week, officials are pushing up the
process to get the aging bridges replaced.

According to Mark Latti, spokesman for the state Department of
Transportation, the state had originally set the deadline at Nov.
30 for bids to replace the bridges. But in light of last week’s
events, that date has been moved up to Oct. 17. The state is
budgeting between $5.5 million and $6.5 million for the work.

By opening bids sooner, Latti said, state officials can hire a
contractor that much quicker. While the actual replacement of the
bridges won’t necessarily happen any faster, Latti said,
contractors can get to the first stage, construction of temporary
bypass bridges, more quickly.

“What it allows us to do is get the temporary bridges in sooner, in
case there’s another issue,” he said.

City Engineer Eric Dudley said the workers were at the bridge on
Cumberland Street last week because the city had requested the
state perform some minor paving maintenance on one of the bridge’s
expansion joints.

“While they were there, they noticed a sinkhole in one of the
bridge decks,” Dudley said, referring to the concrete pad under the
pavement on the bridge itself.

The following morning, Oct. 5, workers from the state, including
Don McKenna, a bridge maintenance manager, were on the scene.
Normal wear and tear on the aging bridge led to a portion of the
deck to crack and break up in the center, he said.

McKenna said workers initially spotted a hole in the pavement that
was about a foot in diameter, but Dudley said the actual damage to
the bridge deck underneath was a space about 7 feet wide and 10
feet long.

“They were in the right place at the right time,” McKenna said of
the workers who discovered the problem.

Workers removed the broken concrete, replaced the support beams and
rods, and poured new concrete to fix the hole. The bridge
officially reopened Thursday morning, but not after snarling city
traffic during Wednesday evening’s commute.

Latti said the bridges were built in 1954. That type of bridge,
Latti said, typically has a 50-75-year lifespan. Approximately
15,000 vehicles travel on the bridges daily, Latti said. The state
is required to inspect both bridges annually, and inspected them
last in October 2010, Latti said. They were inspected again just
after the hole was discovered, he said.

The bridge’s problems even prompted a comment by President Barack
Obama at a press conference at the White House Oct. 6. The
president met with reporters to discuss upcoming jobs legislation.
In his remarks, posted on the White House website, Obama cited
several locations across the country where more people could be put
to work.

“In Maine, there is a bridge that is in such bad shape that pieces
of it were literally falling off the other day,” the president
said. “And, meanwhile, we’ve got millions of laid-off construction
workers who could right now be busy rebuilding roads, rebuilding
bridges, rebuilding schools. This jobs bill gives them a chance to
get back to work rebuilding America.”

While the president’s remarks did not mention the bridge by name,
and White House officials declined to clarify, a staff member for
1st District U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said that the White House
confirmed Obama was in fact referring to the bridge on Cumberland
Street.

“They identified it as that bridge,” said Pingree spokesman Willy
Ritch.

Pingree, in a release, said she supported the president’s call for
new legislation that will support job growth and the nation’s
infrastructure.

“Maine would stand to get a minimum of $138 million to fix roads
and bridges, and this bridge in Westbrook is just one of the
examples of our crumbling highway system,” Pingree said. “Fixing up
our roads and bridges would create good paying construction jobs,
and so would the $120 million Maine communities would get under the
jobs bill to keep teachers and first responders on the job and hire
back some who have been laid off.”