Crossing That Bridge

Imagine that you are in the mountains or a desolate area practically isolated from neighboring towns or cities. You enjoy the isolation and quiet, especially the lovely bridge over the Housatonic River where you sometimes see turtles and herons. You’ve decided to hold a family get together when suddenly an older member is stricken with a heart attack. You along with others think quickly to call 911 to get this person the help they need and fast. It is then you find out that emergency personnel can’t show up for the next 20 minutes due to that same bridge failing. All you can do is wait, attempting to prolong the person's life until proper medical professionals can arrive. This is a problem that residents near Brookside Road in Great Barrington, Massachusetts face as well as citizens all over Berkshire County, and the nation for that matter. with bridge closures due to a failure in infrastructure, natural disaster, or simply becoming a one lane road due to deterioration in bridge supports.

This is a causeway that has shifted to a one lane road due to collapsing of culverts (pipes that run underneath) as well as a sinkhole. This road is popular for bird watchers and fishers alike, who would be able to park on the side of the bridge but no longer can.

The reason behind these bridges being closed can be due to several factors. According to an article from Science Direct, the five leading causes for bridge failure are design error, construction mistakes, hydraulics, collision and overload. These five leading causes make up 70% of bridge failures. They also state “the failure rate is very high for steel bridges, which is inseparable from excessive emphasis on structure strength but lack of consideration on structure stability and fatigue in early years.” An example of this would be the bridge on Pecks Road near our high school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. This steel bridge failed due to rust and corrosion as well as loss of steel support beams on one of its sides. This created an uneven weight load and structural instability which got worse as the years went on, closing the bridge off more and more as the structure became more unstable.

The Pecks Road bridge that crosses the Onota Brook had been down to a one lane bridge since 2019, but as of July 22, 2024, has been closed to pedestrian and vehicle traffic causing a detour on both sides.

The closure of this small bridge has caused small but annoying detours to be taken. A larger issue with this bridge closing is that it creates an unsafe area to walk. With the bridge going down it also took with it the sidewalk. This is an issue because Onota Street, which connects to Pecks Road after the bridge, has no sidewalk and two sharp curves. This creates a hazard for civilians trying to go for a walk or run as trees and houses block people from being able to see around each corner until they are pretty much on it.

Other issues rise up from truckers and vehicles carrying very heavy loads going over bridges that do not support the weight limit. The term for this is called overloading and can be very detrimental to a bridge’s structure. It can weaken a bridge's support structure and, like described before with the Pecks road bridge, can create a singular weak point that will expand to the rest of the bridge over time. An example of this would be the bridge on Brookside Road in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which was shutdown due to trucks overloading its weight capacity causing structure instability. The bridge on Brookside Road is also a steel bridge. This is another steel bridge, spanning 45 feet, and its absence now has greatly increased travel times for residents.

The bridge over the Housatonic River in Great Barrington, MA was shut down in May 2024. This bridge closure has required people in the area to make a 20-minute detour to get to the other side of the river.

Western Massachusetts is a mountainous region that contains many rivers as well as 7,880 bridges across the Commonwealth, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Luckily, a good number of these bridges fall under the Municipal Small Bridge Program, a state program that grants and provides financial support for the repairs and maintenance of small bridges. This comes with its drawbacks though as it says in the name it only supports small bridges, with a general bridge length between 10 and 20 feet long. These bridges however are not eligible for federal aid under pre-existing bridge programs.

One very obvious problem with the program is that it does not support bridges that are larger than 20 feet long. Bridges like the one on Barker Road in Great Barrington that are also deteriorating. When interviewed by Berkshire Eagle about the bridge on Barker Road in Great Barrington, Ricardo Morales, the Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities, had this to say: “We have tried getting that funded by the state. Where we received a grant for Pecks and Dan Casey under the Small Bridge program, for Barker it is too long to qualify. There are not formulaic grant awards for a bridge like that.”