Shut Down Beverly Drawbridge Assessment Could Take Months

BEVERLY, MA — Bridge concerns a decade in building escalated rapidly in Beverly last week when the state Department of Transportation deemed the Hall-Whitaker Drawbridge as deficient and closed it to vehicular traffic as of Friday night.

It could now take months to determine whether a temporary bridge can even be installed and perhaps years before the bridge is fully replaced.

"A temporary bridge may or may not be possible," Beverly Mayor Mike Cahill said at Thursday night's public forum on the closure. "But we hope that it is."

Cahill said it will be toward the end of the summer before the state can determine the feasibility of a temporary bridge.

"If so, go full speed with it," he said. "If it's not, know quickly enough that the focus will be on the permanent bridge.

"If it's a permanent replacement it's going to be a longer process than if it's a temporary one," he later added. "We don't want to spend a lot of time messing around with a temporary if the answer's going to be 'no.'"

Cahill said Mass DOT had intended to build a permanent replacement of the Kernwood Bridge — which is still open to traffic — before the Hall-Whitaker, but he acknowledged that all changed with last week's assessment.

The Hall-Whitaker Bridge was planned to be replaced in 2027 as of the most recent state master plan.

"We told them this week this really should be higher on your priority list," he said. "This needs to be at the top of the list."

Police Chief John LeLacheur said that extra patrols have been put on in the surrounding areas because of expected additional traffic in residential neighborhoods due to the detours. He said he has also contacted driving apps such as Waze and Google Maps to have them change directions to help traffic avoid the area.

State Sen. Joan Lovely (D-Salem) said the funding for the bridge is included in the federal infrastructure bill passed and allocated last fall.

"The urgency is there," Lovely said. "We know it and Mass DOT knows it. ... So that you can go back to living your normal lives and not be cut off from downtown Beverly.

"We know it's a headache."

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.

"But as soon as we can get them here we'll do this again."

(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.)