NORTHAMPTON — The Clement Street Bridge closed at 7 a.m. on Friday and its earliest reopening has been estimated at next summer.
“We’re trying to notify as many people as we can,” said Mayor David Narkewicz, who acknowledged the inconvenience this move will cause.
While the bridge is closed to cars, pedestrians and bikers will still be able to use it.
Earlier this month, Massachusetts Department of Transportation bridge inspectors identified a structural deficiency with the bridge. Following a conference with the city’s Department of Public Works, the decision was made to close the bridge.
“We really need to, out of an abundance of caution, close the bridge,” said the mayor.
He noted, however, that efforts to put a permanent fix into place for the bridge were underway even before the closing was announced. A plan for repairing the bridge was submitted to MassDOT earlier this year, and was recently approved.
Greenman Pedersen Inc., an engineering company, drew up the city’s plan, which seeks to correct structural deficiencies in the bridge. The plan will go to bid in January. Construction is set to begin in the spring.
This is not the first time that structural problems have come up with the bridge, which is more than a century old. The bridge was closed to all but pedestrian traffic in August 2007 because of structural problems. It reopened in early 2009.