Worst Bridge Delays
May Be Over

By M. D. Drysdale

The horrendous lines and delays caused by the construction of Randolph’s Main Street bridge are not over with—but they should be much reduced the rest of the fall.

So says engineer Tom Chase, who admitted that the delays—both for traffic and for construction crews—have been very problematic the last two weeks.

Traffic delays as long as 45 minutes have been reported, with many delays of 30 minutes or so. The situation has been especially bad the last two weeks, as for the first time, the traffic was one-way-only for large stretches of the day.

Last week, the problem was the digging up and reshaping of the intersection on the north side of the bridge. The delays reached a crescendo this Monday, when both approaches were paved in an operation which permitted only one-way traffic all day long.

However, two-way traffic was restored Tuesday and Wednesday, Chase noted, and will continue for the rest of the week.

Next week, there will be another one-way situation for about half a day (he didn’t know which day) when a new drainage system is installed at the south end of the bridge.

And late in the month, there will be one more paving day—this time, paving the bridge deck itself—which will bring one-way traffic for another whole day.

Except for these two operations, however, Chase speculated that two-way traffic will be permitted right through the end of the year, with the bridge being opened for traffic before Thanksgiving.

He would not, however, rule out "uncertain delays" during that time.

Emergency Vehicles

Chase, a Randolph native, noted that concern has been raised about the free travel of fire and ambulance emergency vehicles. That, however, has not really been much of a problem, he said.

Whenever there is a call for an emergency vehicle, the entire temporary bridge is immediately cleared. That causes more delays for regular drivers because it completely closes the bridge, he noted, but allows the emergency vehicles to pass.

He confirmed that he and other bridge workers have borne the brunt of quite a few complaints in the last two weeks. Traffic, after all, has sometimes been been backed up all the way to Shaw’s Supermarket.

There have been some suggestions, too—but many are off the mark.

Could they do the construction work at night? Much too noisy, he said.

Allow cars to flow in smaller groups rather than in longer ones? Every time you switch from one direction to the other, the bridge is empty for 30 seconds, he pointed out, so that a larger number of smaller groups actually moves the traffic more slowly.

Even though the bridge will be open to traffic by Thanksgiving, work will be proceeding at the site until next June, Chase said. And he can’t guarantee there won’t be more delays.

Sometime next spring, for instance, the pavers will be in town again to apply the final coat. And Randolph area drivers know what that means.