Published: 09/07/2007
Route 1A owners feel 'betrayed' by state on bridge closure By Victor Tine Staff writer
NEWBURY - Residents and businesses along Route 1A say they feel betrayed by the Massachusetts Highway Department's decision to close the bridge over the Parker River while it is being rebuilt.
Business owners on both sides of the bridge yesterday said state officials - including Gov. Deval Patrick - didn't listen to them when deliberating about closing the bridge and don't care that they face severe financial hardships as a result.
"Everyone's going to suffer, and our inconvenience doesn't matter to the state," said Howie Fernald, whose family-owned Fernald Marine boat and kayak store is a few yards south of the bridge.
Colin Smith, who with his wife, Wendy, owns Iron Moon Farm, a farm stand less than a mile north of the bridge, said, "The state has betrayed us, absolutely, and our governor betrayed us."
MassHighway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky notified local legislators by letter early this week it was "no longer feasible" to either keep one lane of the bridge open during construction - which was the original plan for the $14.1 million project - or to build a temporary bridge while the main span is being worked on.
Paiewonsky did not say when the closing would take place, but state Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury, said she believed it would be sometime this fall. Reconstruction of the 77-year-old bridge is expected to take two years.
In her letter to Stanley and state Sen. Bruce Tarr, Paiewonsky said MassHighway's decision was dictated by public safety concerns, but Smith said the state agency destabilized the bridge by placing two rows of concrete Jersey barriers end to end along the entire length of the span. The barriers were installed after MassHighway reduced traffic to a single lane when a spring inspection showed the structure to be deteriorating more rapidly than previously thought.
"The bridge could have held up, but they made it worse," Smith said. "They say it's public safety, but I'll be all over them when the first accident happens (on detour roads)." Business owners said they are bracing for hard times ahead.
"I don't know what to do," Fernald said. "We stand to lose a tremendous amount of money. We're old enough and big enough that we can hang around for three years, but over 45 percent of my business travels over that bridge."
Rowley restaurant owner Steve Pierro said many of his customers come from Newburyport, on the other side of the bridge. Pierro and his wife, Michele, own American Barbecue, about a mile south of the bridge at the corner of Route 1A and Railroad Avenue.
"It's going to absolutely devastate us financially," Pierro said. "A lot of people use 1A to get here. The alternative is to go Route 1 to 133 and then come north on 1A, but the question is, how many people are going to go that route?"
Pierro, too, believes the state showed little consideration for the people who would have to live with the closure.
"It's sad to see that no one from the state came to talk to individual businesses," he said. "Not to have someone come talk to us, to me, it's un-American."
Joy Michaud lives only about four houses up from the bridge on the north side of the Parker River.
She stopped her motor scooter yesterday at the Iron Moon farm stand to commiserate with Colin Smith about the coming closure.
"Personally, it'll be great, because there'll be no loud vehicles and no 18-wheelers going through at 1 in the morning, but for businesses it'll be a disaster," she said. "A lot of businesses really depend on this bridge."
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