Floating Bridge Is Closed
To Cars, ‘til Rebuilt
By Sandy Vondrasek

Brookfield’s Floating Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic "for the foreseeable future," the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) announced last Thursday.

"When crews went to look this spring, they found the bridge had lost significant buoyancy—in short, the bridge is sinking, " VTrans spokesman John Zicconi told The Herald this week

Zicoconi made it clear that that there is no easy fix for the problem, which is due to waterlogged timbers and flotation barrels that are taking on water—either because of aging or "minor vandalism."

It has been 30 years since the Floating Bridge underwent a major rebuild, and it is time for another, Zicconi indicated. (More recently, the bridge was closed from August, 1998-October 2000, but that was to repair a dam. Failure of the old dam caused the lake levels to drop dramatically.)

Zicconi wouldn’t predict when the bridge might be rebuilt, but it surely will not be this year, given the design/engineering work that needs to be done and state budget constraints.

"Our first priority is safety," Zicconi added. "We certainly don’t want a family in an SUV going on the bridge and tipping over."

He noted, however, that the Floating Bridge is plenty buoyant enough for pedestrian traffic, and that the public will still be able to walk on, fish from, or dive into Sunset Pond from the Floating Bridge. This summer, the state will undertake some minor repairs to the deck and rails to make the bridge safer for foot traffic and recreational activities, he added.

Brookfield Selectboard Chair Mike McPhetres said yesterday that the closure came as a surprise, although VTrans did contact the town about the decision a few days before issuing the general release.

"We were wondering why it hadn’t been opened," McPhetres said. "Usually it’s the first week in May."

Town officials will do their best to advocate for a quick replacement, McPhetres said, but they also recognize that the state already has a big backlog of road and bridge projects, and shrinking revenues to fix them.

"If they don’t have any money, they don’t have any money," McPhetres said.

The news of the bridge closure came as a disappointment to Green Trails Inn owner Jane Doerfer, who bought the eight-room bed-and-breakfast operation three years ago.

The Floating Bridge is a notable tourist attraction, and "certainly one of the reasons I bought the inn," she said.

"Our website has a lot of photos of cars going over the bridge," Doerfer said. "My son-in-law took the pictures, and I thought he was going overboard with the cars.

"But when I ask people what brought them to Vermont," she continued, "they say they loved the idea of going over the bridge."

Doerfer noted it was too early to say whether the closure would affect her business. Happily, she noted, the bridge will remain open to pedestrian traffic, and Bookfield’s historic village and Sunset Pond are strong draws, in themselves.

VTrans spokesman Zicconi said that when the Floating Bridge was reopened after its 1978 rebuild, it was so buoyant that there was no water on the deck.

Last summer, recalled Selectboard Chair McPhetres this week, close to half the deck was covered with water.

The 330-foot bridge, which has 380 flotation devices, was last reconstructed in 1978, using a combination of new wood as well as material from the preexisting structure, which dated back to 1936.

Zicconi noted that some of the wood from the 1936 bridge was re-used in the last rebuild. Those timbers, now more than 70 years old, have become "waterlogged," he said.

Planning for a new bridge will be complicated, Zicconi predicted. Because it is in water, the bridge will need environmental permits, and because it is in a historic district, there were be "preservation" issues. Zicconi said one quick estimate put reconstruction costs at $2 million.

In the meantime, motorists using Route 65 will be detoured 2.7 miles along local streets, the same detour that is used during the winter when the bridge is traditionally closed.