Splitsville: Divided town seeks unity during bridge fix

Thousands of cars and trucks that normally shoot straight across one of southern Vermont’s few east-west routes will meander a dozen miles up and through nearby Springfield because of the missing bridge over Chester’s South Brook.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110612/NEWS03/706129909

Published June 12, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Splitsville: Divided town seeks unity during bridge fix

By Kevin O’Connor

CHESTER — Townspeople and travelers hungry for grilled cheese and gossip like to meet at Jack’s Diner, a minute-or-so drive from most anywhere on a local map.

Until next week, that is.

On June 20, the state will remove and replace Bridge No. 8, a narrow concrete crossing as nondescript as its name on this community’s central artery, Route 103. With such projects, workers usually divert traffic onto a temporary replacement. But lacking roadside room to do that, Chester’s 3,154 residents — as well as countless highway neighbors from Rutland to Rockingham — will be split up for at least a month.

Thousands of cars and trucks that normally shoot straight across one of southern Vermont’s few east-west routes will, according to the state’s official detour, meander a dozen miles up and through nearby Springfield because of the missing bridge over Chester’s South Brook.

“It’s less traditional and maybe a little bit more disruptive to some,” says Richard Tetreault, the state’s chief transportation engineer, “but, in that location, we have physical constraints.”

In response, several Chester businesses are trying to attract drivers to town with several shorter alternatives. To the east, the Vermont Country Store is distributing a professionally produced map paid in part by a federal rural development grant. To the west, Lisai’s Chester Market is handing out a hand-drawn version with another set of directions.

Their suggestions aren’t any easier than the state’s. You can take a boomeranging 10-mile bypass on the Sylvan, Eastman and Grafton roads or try the shorter Green Mountain Turnpike. The latter may sound like a cousin of the Garden State Parkway, but it’s instead a 200-year-old dirt road with a one-lane bridge where farmers have planted a line of hand-painted signs:

“Country living/Country style/Wait your turn/Wave and smile.”

Few locals see the humor. This isn’t the first bridge to be replaced in Chester — the state removed the nearby Bridge No. 9 last month and, for several more weeks, is detouring vehicles onto a smaller, simpler route. But since even that has scared away traffic, businesses fear what’s about to happen next.

Take Jack’s Diner, soon to be separated from the town’s central residential and business district. Already serving fewer customers, its staff is debating whether to close June 20 and reopen when the bridges do.

The nearby Heritage Deli & Bakery has decided to move temporarily to the Vermont Country Store closer to Interstate 91.

“I understand the bridges need to be done, but it’s hurting our business,” says Heritage co-owner Claire Hoser, one of many merchants struggling to be supportive. “There’s just no traffic going by, and people who have come in are confused.”

The Chester work is just one of more than $100 million in state bridge projects this year. Lake Champlain’s Crown Point bridge has sparked the most headlines and headaches, in part because drivers in Vermont and New York face longer detours.

But Chester’s challenge is nonetheless unusual. The state says only one other current bridge project — the Singing Bridge on Route 14 in North Montpelier — lacks a nearby detour. But that site doesn’t require a steady stream of Rutland, Ludlow and Rockingham-bound cars and trucks to find a new route across the state.

To compensate, workers from Cold River Bridges of Walpole, N.H., will toil seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. If they finish by July 17, their company will receive a $60,000 bonus. For every hour ahead of that, contractors will earn an additional $600. Likewise, if they don’t meet the deadline, they’ll face penalties of $15,000 to $20,000 a day.

Chester Town Manager David Pisha says both locals and laborers feel the pressure.

“Part of the challenge is we have a number of groups who want to produce maps with so many detours,” Pisha says. “There has been some concern we don’t have a consolidated message.”

Then again, everyone is hoping for the best. Lisai’s Chester Market, on the same side as most of the town’s population, so far reports steady local business and only a small drop in weekend tourist traffic.

“I have 25 employees and townspeople want to see them get paychecks,” market owner Lonnie Lisai says. “We’re trying to promote some really good deals and make it worthwhile to come in. But it will be interesting to hear what I say a month from now.”

Down the road, George Bittner has seen business slow at his Yankee Ingenuity Antiques. Today his round trip to the post office is a mile. With next week’s detour, it will be 10 miles.

Then again, Bittner’s 1830s brick building sits next to Bridge No. 8. Had the state wanted, it could have bulldozed his front lawn, chain-sawed two century-old maples and tried to shoehorn in a temporary crossing.

“There would have been trucks right outside our window.”

That’s why at least one Chester businessman will live a month without traffic.