Beverly's Kernwood Bridge Reopens After 2-Hour Closure Thursday

UPDATE: 5:05 p.m.

BEVERLY, MA — The Kernwood Avenue Bridge in Beverly was shut down for more than two hours on Thursday afternoon at the same time the Hall-Whitaker Bridge remains closed to traffic after it was determined to be structurally deficient late last month.

The state Department of Transportation said at about 2:30 that the Kernwood Bridge was closed to traffic because of "mechanical issues" and that drivers should seek alternative routes.

The state DOT reported the issues were resolved and the bridge was reopened at about 5 p.m.

The Hall-Whitaker bridge that carries Bridge Street over the Bass River was found to have "insufficient load-carrying capacity due to significant deterioration in the primary structural elements, warranting the closure of the bridge to all vehicular traffic" in June.

Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill said at a public forum on June 23 that both bridges were on the state's schedule for replacement over the next several years, and that Kernwood was actually scheduled to be replaced ahead of the Hall-Whitaker Bridge until recent developments.

He said at the public meeting that it could now take months to determine whether a temporary bridge at the Hall-Whitaker site can even be installed and perhaps years before the bridge is fully replaced.

Cahill said there will be a second public forum this summer where Mass DOT representatives will
attend and hopefully bring with them more concrete timelines.

"We're going to get them here in Beverly as soon as they have some of these answers," he said, "which maybe it's July, maybe it's August."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)