TANYARD – Four years ago the state pledged $1.6 million to rebuild a bridge that’s a vital link between Talbot and Caroline counties.
Now the money has disappeared, the 69-year-old Dover Bridge is aging and Eastern Shore residents are angry that the state has yet to follow through on its promise.
“Our local politicians and local people have been screaming about it,” said Talbot County Sheriff Thomas Duncan. “But it has been falling on deaf ears. I know the state has to pick and choose projects, but it seems like this has been on the `pick’ side for years.”
Residents have been dealing with the problems of the 841-foot-long, swing- span bridge six miles east of Easton for years. The span would often become stuck in an opened position, forcing motorists to either wait in traffic jams or take back-road detours. Choptank River boaters were also inconvenienced when the bridge stuck closed.
The Dover Bridge – one of three single, swing-span bridges in the state – is operated by a bridge tender and averages 200 openings a year. (The other two are on the Patuxent River and Weems Creek.)
The state set aside $1.6 million for a new bridge in 1998, but construction plans have been scrapped for now, said State Highway Administration spokesman David Buck. Since a $700,000 mechanical and electrical overhaul in 1999, there have been no problems, Buck said.
But mention the Dover Bridge around here, and you’re likely to get stories of anxious moments: the sick people being trapped by the bridge on the way to a hospital in Easton or two large tractor-trailers barely missing each other’s mirrors while crossing the two-lane bridge.
“Whenever my wife drives across it, she squeezes the steering wheel like she’s trying to squeeze water out of it,” said American Corner resident H. George Jackson Jr., who petitioned the state for a replacement. “The fear never goes away.”
Take Bart Johnson, who got stuck in a traffic jam on his way to picking up his wife in a snowstorm last winter. A pickup truck driver got out of his car and said there was a hole on the bridge, Johnson said.
“So I turned around and went back,” he said.
Talbot County emergency personnel also worry about traveling on the bridge, which is the most direct route to the area’s only hospital in Easton, said Ron Fearins, 60, a Preston volunteer fireman. A 15-minute ambulance run has lasted up to 40 minutes when the bridge did not operate correctly, Fearins said.
“Is something going to happen on the Dover Bridge with a patient on board?” Fearins said. “That would require us to reroute with an emergency or critical care patient.”
In 1997, local residents rallied Annapolis, organizing a letter-writing campaign spearheaded by Jackson, and gaining support from lawmakers, including Sen. Richard Colburn, R-Dorchester. About 860 people signed a scroll presented to Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who pledged support for a bridge replacement.
The state spent $200,000 to study the feasibility of a bridge replacement, but the $1.6 million allocated for the project was put back into the general transportation funds in 1999.
“Who was responsible?” Colburn said. “I never received an answer. One would have to assume the person responsible for removing the Dover Bridge (funding) would be the governor.”
The State Highway Administration has the expertise to make decisions on which bridge projects move forward, said Raquel M. Guillory, a spokeswoman for Glendening.
The state study found that the bridge was “functionally obsolete” because of its narrow width.
It recommended repairing the existing bridge and building a wider-lane span with 50 feet of underclearance for marine traffic.
Many residents from Talbot, Caroline and Dorchester counties supported the study’s recommendations in various hearings held by the State Highway Administration.
“It was a lot of effort by a lot of people – 860 people wrote letters and they attended hearings,” Jackson said. “Their concerns are valuable and for the state to put this to the wayside is not right.”
State Highway Administration officials say the bridge is structurally sound. An inspection last year found no major problems. Some of the bridge’s grid deck, however, needs repair, officials said.
“We’re happy with the way it’s operating,” Buck said. “It was never an issue with the structure of the bridge.”
Residents, like Betty Ballas, however, find no comfort in the state’s words, pointing to cracks on the bridge’s concrete and support columns.
“We’ve been fortunate that the bandage they put on the bridge is working,” said Ballas, a Federalsburg councilwoman. “But you never know because this is an old bridge.”
Fearins, the fireman, explained it in terms of his job: “I know we are dealing with something like a fuse. We don’t know if it’s long or short but we know it’s burning.”
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