By Stephen Seitz
WOODSTOCK—Bridge 51, which crosses Kedron Brook on Route 4 in Woodstock Village, will be open this Friday, May 8, according to a statement from the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
The work remaining includes rubbing the concrete finish of the new bridge rail (by hand), installing the signs, and line striping.
The bridge was first built in 1935, 34 feet long and 56 feet wide. Originally, it was a single-span concrete T-beam bridge with an ornamental railing. The agency decided to upgrade the bridge to a more suitable width and to modernize the hydraulics.
Construction began in early March. The new superstructure has two 11-foot wide travel lanes and two 8-foot parking lanes, as well as sidewalks. The concrete rail matches historic and design requirements, the agency said.
At an approximate cost of $1.5 million, the project replaced the concrete T-beams with a new superstructure matching the existing geometry. The contractor, Cold River Bridges of Walpole, N.H., used prefabricated bridge structures to keep costs down and save time.
