ROYALSTON – A $110,000 One Stop Rural Development Grant will allow the town to move forward on the replacement the long-closed King Street Bridge.
At its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Select Board was updated on progress being made by the Bridge Committee, which is working to replace the King Street Bridge with a pedestrian bridge over the Millers River, though it would be able to accommodate emergency vehicles.
Tom Musco, a member of the Bridge Committee, told the Athol Daily News that the One Stop Rural Development Grant will be used to “analyze and prioritize several options for what to do with the sewer line that runs over the existing King Street Bridge. We can’t remove that bridge until we know how we’re going to keep that sewer line operating.”
The state closed the bridge to vehicle traffic decades ago and in 2022, also closed it to foot traffic. Residents believe a new bridge could help revitalize the economy of the South Village.
The bridge sits at the trailhead of the Blue & Yellow Trail that runs for just over three miles along the south bank of the Millers River before turning south into Athol’s Bearsden Conservation Area. Because of the closure, hikers are unable to access the trail from the South Village.
Musco said the engineering company Tighe & Bond has come with several options for the sewer pipe.
“Between now and next May, at the latest, Tighe & Bond is going to look at these options and recommend what it believes is the best alternative,” he said.
One option, said Musco, is to tunnel under the river and put the pipe in the tunnel.
“Another alternative is to build another separate bridge just for the pipe,” he said. “Another option is to build a temporary bridge for the pipe and, once the existing bridge is replaced, the sewer line would be moved – probably underneath the new bridge.”
Musco said analysis of the three options constitutes Phase One of the bridge project.
“Phase Two will be to look for funding to actually pay for engineering on one of those options, and Phase Three would be to look for funding to do the actual work; whatever option the town picks,” he said. “All that has to be done before we can remove the existing bridge.”
A $50,000 earmark included in the FY27 state budget, secured by state Sen. Jo Comerford and state Rep. Susannah Whipps, will be used for a detailed inspection and analysis of the existing bridge abutments.
“There are two separate abutments on each side of the existing bridge, instead of having one big one on each side,” Musco said. “We only need one of those abutments on each side to be in good shape for the new bridge, which is not going to be a vehicle bridge.”
Musco said an engineering firm that looked at the abutments earlier this year indicated three of the four abutments appear to be in good shape. He added that the committee is hoping at least one abutment on each side can be used for the new bridge “because we wouldn’t have to replace those, which would cost a lot of money.”
Musco said the committee is hoping the new span will be a covered bridge.
“There was a covered bridge there before the bridge that’s there now,” he said. “That bridge was washed away in the flood of either 1937 or 1937. That’s when the bridge that’s there now was built.”
Asked about a timeframe for construction of a new span, Musco replied, “It all depends on the funding.”