ATHOL – One of the two bridges on Chestnut Hill Avenue between Route 2A and Crescent Street was shut down for several hours Tuesday night until Wednesday morning to allow for repairs.

The bridge over the Pan Am railroad tracks, immediately off of Main Street, is maintained by the state Department of Transportation. Public Works Director Dick Kilhart said the DPW and Athol Police assisted with the shutdown of the bridge.

“We have some DOT folks that we contacted, and they brought out their DOT inspectional team and what they ended up doing temporarily was adding a steel plate and tacking a steal plate,” said Public Works Director Dick Kilhart. “When I say ‘tacking,’ that’s putting a little cold patch around it so it doesn’t create much of a bump there. But there’s a steel plate that’s over it for now.”

Kilhart said MassDOT has done work in that area several times recently. Kilhart drove over the bridge on his return from a meeting in Worcester Wednesday morning.

“Like I said, there’s an eight-by-ten (foot) steel plate that’s tacked in place, and the bridge was opened up first thing this morning,” he said. “So they came out and worked on it last night. When our guys went home (Tuesday evening) it was still closed, so they came out and did some work either late last night or early this morning.”

MassDOT spokesperson John Goggin stated via email late Wednesday morning that the bridge “had some loose bolts at a joint filler piece. Last night, a MassDOT crew installed a steel plate over a joint filler piece and permanent repairs will be made soon.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.