Viewpoint
Peter C. Hichborn
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They're going to build it anyway. The new bridge nobody in Salisbury, Newburyport and Amesbury really wanted. The bridge that only benefits travelers on Interstate 95. I agree we need a safe passage over the Merrimack River while bemoaning the fact that our present bridge is only 60 years old and is used up. I'm older than that and am not used up to the point of being replaced. Different story.
I attended a meeting Aug. 12 to listen to a remarkable presentation by some of the same people who danced and dazzled us during the Big Dig project. Admittedly I may have held some preconceptions, none of which have been allayed. I listened to an acoustics expert explain why the numbers showed that the people who will be auditorily impacted detrimentally really won't be impacted auditorily. The numbers prove it. Could numbers also prove that I really like rap music? OK. No sound abatement to be included in the design plan. The numbers were wrong; sort of like a losing lottery ticket. They're not going to build it anyway.
Then I witnessed some nifty architectural renderings of the minimally desired pedestrian walk and bikeway over the river, widening the span by 20 feet. It showed people lounging blissfully on benches and children being strollered on this passage, separated from 75,000 exhaust fume-producing vehicles by the ever-lovely Jersey barriers topped by three feet of hurricane fence.
I studied the plans for this trail, asked questions before the meeting and discovered that this pedestrian miracle won't connect anything. Really. The trail starts on the eastern end at Newburyport's commuter bus parking lot. The one that's enclosed without access because you pay to use it. It has no place to end on the Salisbury side. I don't believe this will ever become a destination location. They will build it anyway.
We were told that the three communities involved would be urged to come up with some sort of linkage plans which, although not stated, they would pay for themselves. Not easy, not likely, without wads of money falling out of Uncle Sam's pockets. And even then, where is the groundswell of support for such a linkage? It's time to mention that this serendipitous walkway over the river will only make up about 5 percent of the project's cost. That figures to be $6 million on the low side of reality.
Finally, we were further schmoozed by being told that the designers knew and sympathized with our historical loss. They want to mitigate our loss. What historic loss? A used-up, ugly bridge that is only 60 years old? I don't feel the pain.
We were told that the loss would be mitigated by saving the plaques and State of Massachusetts seals that are in hiding or disrepair on the present bridge, refurbishing them and quite possibly erecting some sort of shrine to them and the pols in place when the old bridge was completed in the vintage year of 1951. I'm not sure my heartbreak at the loss of our old bridge is going to be mitigated, but I could be just a grumpy, oldish man.
Can't we just span the river with a safe, sturdy, durable bridge that can handle the increasing load of traffic for the next 60 years? How far afield we seem to wander when design fees are based on a percentage of the cost of the project. My grumpiness should be mitigated by the fact that Uncle Sam is picking up the tab. Yet, how did the Big Dig grow like Topsy? And where does Uncle Sam get his money? They're going to build it anyway.
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Peter C. Hichborn describes himself as living "just upstream in Amesbury."
