Detour ahead (a doozy)

Bridge project adds several miles to park and farm trips, and creates some new assignments for first responders

Andrew Rodgers, manager of Green Meadows Farm, says business is down since work began on the Asbury Street Bridge. (David Kamerman/ Globe Staff)

TOPSFIELD - Work crews have begun replacing the 94-year-old Asbury Street Bridge, which could lead to significant headaches for drivers and at least a half-dozen Topsfield residents whose homes lie on the Hamilton side of the span.

The project started Aug. 4 and is expected to last about four months. It will also affect recreational activities and local commerce during one of the busiest times of the year.

The main entrance to Bradley Palmer State Park, just a stone's throw from the bridge, is no longer accessible from Ipswich Road in Topsfield. The park is home to a popular wading pool and miles of mountain-biking and equestrian trails. Drivers will have to enter the park from Asbury Street on the Hamilton-Wenham side, adding close to 10 miles to the trip from Topsfield, a trip that used to be less than a mile.

Green Meadows Farm on Asbury Street and the Willowdale Estate within Bradley Palmer are the only businesses directly affected by the project. Each will have to make do with two possible alternate routes: one through Wenham, following Route 97, which adds 8 miles, and the other through Ipswich, running along Route 1A, adding almost 14 miles.

Farm manager Andrew Rodgers questioned the timing of the project and said it would be a major inconvenience.

The bulk of the farm's crop is harvested from August through October. The farm makes arrangements in the winter through a Community Supported Agriculture program with customers who buy shares and travel weekly to the farm from June through October to receive a portion of the harvest.

"We had no idea about the bridge closing when we were setting up CSA accounts in January and February," Rodgers said. "We have sent out a newsletter this week and have added alternate-route instructions to our website."

Peter McCullough, a shareholder from Rowley, was at the farm recently, filling a bag with string beans he handpicked from the farm's garden. He comes to the farm because he likes to pick his own produce.

"I'm going to be cut off," he said. "With the bridge open, it's about 5 miles each way; I don't know what's ahead."

But McCullough is used to bridge closings. In Rowley, the Wethersfield Street Bridge has been closed since the Mother's Day storm in 2006.

He is more optimistic about the Asbury Street project.

"It should be OK. If they're starting it, it should go through to completion. It's an inconvenience, but it's worth it to come here."

Pam Jonah, a spokeswoman for the Willowdale Estate, said any improvements made to the access route to the estate are positive. "We view it as a temporary inconvenience."

And mountain biker Jim Donovan of Winthrop plans to keep riding in the park, already having found a suitable alternative to the bridge.

"There's a small footbridge down on Ipswich Road with lots of on-street parking. I can access the park from there," he said.

The Asbury Street Bridge provides the most direct route from Topsfield to Hamilton and Wenham. The bridge was not designed to bear the weight of modern construction vehicles.

According to a Topsfield Highway Department traffic count taken in May, the bridge handles approximately 3,200 cars per day.

Topsfield officials decided the time was right to get started on the project because prices for structural steel and concrete lately have been a moving target.

The town had already put on hold plans to repair the Rowley Street Bridge due to rising labor and material costs.

"We decided we had talked about it enough," said Topsfield Public Works official Dave Bond, the lead supervisor of the project. "We had a meeting with police and fire from Wenham, Hamilton, and Topsfield as well as representatives from Bradley Palmer, the Willowdale Estate, and Green Meadows Farm, and the spirit of cooperation was awesome."

The original cost for the project was estimated between $1 million and $3 million, according to Bond. Using a combination of $550,000 in funding from the state and $400,000 from the town, the bridge project will be completed for less than originally estimated.

Bond said Hamilton fire and police would be the first responders to emergency calls from homes and businesses on the Hamilton side of the bridge for the duration of construction.

The new bridge will lack the historical charm of its predecessor, which was made from stone and concrete.

"It will be a fixed concrete bridge, and the wearing surface will be asphalt," Bond said. "The look will be more urban, like something you'd see over [Interstate] 95. The bridge must meet certain modern design standards."

Customers of Foote Brothers Canoes in Ipswich, who regularly pass under the bridge, will be able to paddle through the construction area except on days when the old bridge is being removed and the new bridge installed. Bond could not elaborate on exactly what this means. But he said signs warning canoeists and kayakers of the construction had been posted along the riverbank. He said the town's engineer, who was not available to comment for this article, had contacted Foote Brothers about the construction.

Foote Brothers also could not be reached for comment.

"You can't do everything for everybody," Bond said. "We're doing the best we possibly can."