What's the Status of the Water Street Bridge?

We recently received a question from a Patch reader regarding the "White Fuel Bridge" on Water Street, where production has been at a hault since 2010.

What is going on with the bridge construction or lack there of on the Danvers River Bridge or what others call the White Fuel Bridge? Any update on the "Bridge To Nowhere" would be helpful to a lot of us townies.

Find out in this week's You Ask, Patch Answers.

We went straight to the to find out what's happening with this project.

The following is courtesy of Bob Lee, DPW Director of Operations.

The project itself was to replace a bridge that was evaluated as needing to be reconstructed, as are many throughout the state.

The Water Street bridge project was shut down in 2010 because of engineering issues. There were concerns over the cofferdams that had been installed to keep the water out of the location in which the new bridge support structures were to be constructed. The cofferdams could not be installed as designed and as bid on by the contractor so the contract was terminated and the project is now being redesigned.

The project is now undergoing final review of the revised design and it is expected to go back out for bid in June for an August bid opening and a new contractor selected before the end of September. DPW personnel have been on site with the designers and MassDOT reps. to review the revised design to accommodate the utilities that we (and others) have at the bridge, such as water, sewer, and electric.

Have a question about something happening around town? Email molly.buccini@patch.com to be featured in our next You Ask, Patch Answers.