The next time you drive under the Mass Pike bridge that crosses over Route 85 just north of Richards Road, slow down and take a look around. Notice all that orange paint highlighting the cracks and crumbling supports? Notice the exposed rebar? Unnerving, isn’t it?
According to a recent article in the Milford Daily News written by retired civil engineer Robert W. Foster, those paint markings were made several years ago by engineers evaluating the bridge. Foster, who lives in Hopkinton, makes a case that the Mass Pike bridge and others like it should receive money from the federal stimulus package.
Foster wrote his article before the stimulus package was signed. I can only imagine he was disappointed to learn our Southborough bridge was not on the list of shovel-ready projects that could get stimulus funds. Perhaps we should all be disappointed about that.
I am disappointed. I walk around town all the time and noticed the state of this bridge last year. I guess it will take collapse to get funding, but hopefully no lost lives.
Hopefully the state will get on the ball before something unfortunate happens. I checked with Southborough’s DPW head Karen Galligan. She said she hasn’t heard anything from the state about the bridge recently.