Pedestrian bridge will be floated as possible option

A rendering of the pedestrian bridge that is planned to connect the mill districts of Biddeford and Saco. (Courtesy Wright-Pierce Engineering)

A pedestrian bridge similar to one planned between the aging Maine mill towns of Biddeford and Saco will be offered as an option for Lebanon and Milton to consider at next month’s meeting on the New Bridge Road bridge replacement project, Chip Getchell of the Maine Department of Transportation said today.

Getchell said the bridge, at a cost of $426,000, is 130-feet long and eight-feet wide. It has a steel truss structure and would work quite nicely, he said, as a suitable permanent replacement.

In another major development, Milton officials are looking into removal of the current substructure right down to the lake bottom after getting assurances from New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services that no permitting would be necessary if the pilings were cut just above the lake bottom.

Officials from both towns had worried DES would require a heavy permitting process to remove the creosote-filled pilings. However, New Hampshire DES has assured that would not be the case if the pilings are cut above the lake bottom, said Milton Town Administrator Liz Dionne.

Milton Selectman Bob Bridges said Selectmen Chairman Tom Gray is already looking into the costs associated with the removal and options on the best way to proceed.

The Maine DOT’s Getchell said a state DES liaison also told him Maine would require no permitting for the pilings’ removal as Milton officials are now contemplating.

Removal of the substructure became a top concern last month as reports of kids jumping dangerously close to boats, even sometimes swearing at and spitting on boaters, began to surface again.

Selectmen from both Lebanon and Milton as well as law enforcement held a meeting on the Maine side of the bridge earlier this month to discuss the quickest, most effective ways to stop the dangerous and disrespectful behavior.

Removal of the entire substructure was considered, but most feared DES wouldn’t allow removal of the substructure without an arduous permitting process.

Now, with those fears allayed, officials from both towns will have a lot more to talk about at a bridge workshop meeting planned for Aug. 8.

Getchell said he will bring plans and expense figures for a bridge like the pedestrian span connecting Biddeford and Saco as well.

He said Maine DOT doesn’t normally allocate money for pedestrian bridges, but if Milton, Lebanon, and the state of New Hampshire all wanted it, than the Maine DOT commissioner might go along. 

That means local officials now have several options to look at, including a two-lane vehicular bridge for about $1.5 million and a one-lane bridge for about $1 million.