Bridge replacement should be completed between fall 2024 - spring 2025: NH DOT

The bridge was removed in 2012 due to structural deficiencies. (Rochester Voice file photo).

Milton and Lebanon, Maine, will have a new bridge connecting Townhouse and New Bridge roads sometime between the fall of 2024 and spring of 2025, according to a New Hampshire Dept. of Transportation official.

Matthew Lampron, a project manager, said design work for the bridge has already been contracted with HDL and should be completed by June 2023.

"After the design work is compete we can start advertising for construction contracts, and we could have boots on the ground 90 days after that," he said on Thursday.

Lampron said once they get started in the fall of 2023 it will take somewhere between one and one and a half years to complete the replacement of the bridge, which was torn down in 2012 due to structural deficiencies.

Lampron said delays that have frustrated citizens of both Milton and Lebanon are mostly due to the complexity of interstate and municipal agreements between Maine, New Hampshire, Milton and Lebanon. He acknowledged that the retirements of several project manager in both states that had previously overseen the project may have also played a role.

Lampron said the delays will end up costing taxpayers as the overall replacement cost for the two-lane bridge has risen from $1.5 million to $1.9 million since it was first proposed in 2014.