Landmark bridge to be replaced

The landmark bridge spanning the Black River to the old Fellows Gear Shaper complex is going to be replaced by a similar bridge as part of the ambitious redevelopment of the former machine tool manufacturing plant.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110118/NEWS02/701189895

Published January 18, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Landmark bridge to be replaced

By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The landmark bridge spanning the Black River to the old Fellows Gear Shaper complex is going to be replaced by a similar bridge as part of the ambitious redevelopment of the former machine tool manufacturing plant.

The single-span bridge, now closed off to the public, is unsafe and either has to be rebuilt or replaced, and the new owners of the facility have opted for a new bridge.

The 1912 bridge is described as a Pratt thru-truss bridge, according to the Springfield Downtown Historic District nomination petition.

One Hundred River Street LLC, a business partnership based in Washington, D.C., recently took title to the building after years of environmental cleanup managed by Bob Flint, executive director of the Springfield Area Development Corp.

At one point, the building was used as a business incubator owned by a nonprofit organization by the name of Precision Valley Development Corp.

Flint said the bridge would be replaced by a similar-looking bridge. “I believe it may be a slightly used bridge,” he said, noting that historic preservation concerns dictated an identical or similar in appearance replacement.

Flint said the bridge needed to be replaced and access maintained from the River Street side of the building as the building is converted into doctors’ offices for Springfield Medical Services.

“It needs to be replaced and it’s not safe to walk across. It’s not safe for regular use,” he said.

Most of the parking along River Street in the vicinity of the plant belongs to the building and access on River Street is key.

“Most of the parking goes with the building,” he said.

Flint estimated the cost of building a new bridge and the cost of rehabilitating the old bridge would be the same — between $300,000 and $350,000.

The bridge once carried vehicles, before being restricted to pedestrians, Flint said. At one point, most workers got to work at the Fellows plant by walking across the bridge.

During its manufacturing heyday during World War II more than 3,300 people worked at Fellows, one of the so-called Big Three of the machine tool industry, which earned Springfield its old nickname as “Precision Valley.”

Flint said when a sewer pipe was run across the bridge in the 1980s to serve the building, which was then functioning as a business incubator, its looks took a hit.

The Fellows plant, which stretches more than 1,000 feet along the Black River, was built between 1899 and 1953. Fellows left downtown Springfield for a new manufacturing facility in North Springfield in 1967. The company went out of business about a dozen years ago.

Flint said he expected it would be spring before work on the new bridge begins.