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NEW BEDFORD — The state’s latest proposal for the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge replacement could have long-term consequences for New Bedford’s budding offshore wind industry, city officials say.
MassDOT revealed earlier this year that it had chosen a vertical lift design to replace the 125-year-old span swing bridge. Instead of swinging open horizontally to let boats through, the new design would lift the center of the bridge up to 138 feet in the air, like a limbo bar.
But the extra-tall vessels carrying offshore wind equipment can’t go that low. They need a clearance of 250 feet or higher, so a vertical lift bridge would prevent offshore wind work from happening inside the inner harbor. Right now those vessels can’t get past the swing bridge because it doesn’t open wide enough.
City leaders are scheduling a meeting with MassDOT officials to share their feedback and get more information on how the vertical lift option was chosen.
“We want to be sure that it’s the right choice to put in place,” said Jennifer Carloni, the city’s planning director. “We don’t have a [height] restriction, so we don’t want to put one on ourselves if we don’t have to.”
Carloni acknowledged that a vertical lift might be the best choice based on the tradeoffs that come with other options. She said she and other leaders just want to know how state planners weighed those tradeoffs.
“It’s a significant bridge,” she said. “To have a decision come without our full understanding or full input is something we should be concerned about.”
MassDOT officials plan to finish initial design work this year so they can start construction by 2027. In January, they announced that they preferred a vertical lift design because it would have the shortest and least disruptive construction process. It would also be able to open and close quickly to let boats through with a shorter delay for drivers.
The state planners said they had eliminated the other bridge designs they were considering, including a few types of bascule bridges, which open by folding up into the air like a trap door. Those would take longer to construct and would have narrower openings, the planners said.
City officials said they agree that construction and functionality should be part of the decision, but they want to make sure that state planners are thinking about other factors important to the city — like offshore wind, aesthetics, and climate resilience.
MassDOT did not respond to The Light’s request for comment.
In a letter to MassDOT last month, the city’s planning and port directors outlined their concerns and proposed a working group made up of local and state officials. The group would meet regularly to discuss the bridge design. Carloni said it could be helpful for this project because city officials have had success with working groups in the past for projects like South Coast Rail and the I-195 Route 18 interchange replacement.
“Through those processes, you bring that local viewpoint and concerns into the conversation,” she said.
The height restriction of a vertical lift bridge is one of the city’s top concerns because it would limit what can be done in the inner harbor for the next century, Carloni said. No one can be sure what the wind industry’s needs will be decades from now, and the components aren’t getting any smaller, she added.
State planners should also think about how the new bridge will look when it’s done, city officials said — it’s a local landmark, so they want it to look good.
City leaders weren’t impressed by the pictures of industrial-looking lift bridges that MassDOT showed at a recent presentation.
“You don’t see a lot of aesthetically pleasing high lift bridges in the world,” Carloni said.
Another concern for the city was climate resilience. State planners said they accounted for three feet of sea level rise in planning the height of the bridge, though they didn’t cite their source. Without suggesting that the state had the wrong figure, city officials said they want to know which models it’s based on. They also want to know how state planners are accounting for storm surge.
In their letter to MassDOT, city officials also wrote that state planners should consider the speed of bridge openings and improvements to the surrounding roads in their decisions.
Carloni said the city looks forward to working with MassDOT on the project.
“At this point we’re just looking for more information,” Carloni said. “It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have this bridge redesigned and replaced.”
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
We can thank all the businesses on Pope’s and Fish Islands for lobbying politicians from having the correct style of bridge erected, a Fly-Over! These businesses have been concerned that a simpler access road from both sides to their venues, will put them out of business. We could of had a complete Fly-Over structure built in the 1980’s for around $50 million! Watch the bill now and it still won’t correct the commuting problem. The marina is the bigist draw to Pope’s Island. Commercial entities only exist on Fish Island. Thousands of regular commuters are exposed and sacrificed each day for the sake of the few!
The city once again gets reminded that we are the bastard step child of the state and we have a mayor that is not taken seriously by Beacon Hill.
“Take your new train that nobody will ride and shut up.”
No one in Boston wants to hear Jon Mitchell’s complaints.
It’s easy not to take Jon Mitchell seriously, that’s why he bleats about UMD, the federal government, and now this with no results. Poor leadership, but I doubt he cares because he has his fiefdom.
Having witnessed their efficiency on the Inland Water Way in Florida, it’s easy to see that a Double Bascule bridge is the all around BEST option to replace the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge.
A bascule-style bridge would eliminate the bridge base in the middle of the channel increasing the width to more than 200 feet. It would also eliminate any height restriction, which is an important advantage with the Wind commerce going on in the Harbor. Combined with the current dredging work, a bascule will allow larger vessels clear passage to the recent improvements in the North Terminal. A bascule bridge would also shorten the length of time needed to open and close the bridge for vessel traffic.
If MA DOT insists on building a monstrous vertical lift bridge it will be a huge disservice to both marine and vehicular traffic, and all those who live and work in the area.
Tunnel.
250 feet in the air? A bridge 25 stories high? That sounds horrible for the area. We have never needed or intended to build colossol wind turbines north of the bridge. A flyover would be even worse . We sure as heck do NOT want a flyover.