Warped boards leave Mattapoisett bike path spinning its wheels

MATTAPOISETT — A trail of two bridges.

The Mattapoisett Rail Trail bike path suffered a setback this month as engineers discovered problems with the materials used to construct one of the bridges connecting Goodspeed Island to Mattapoisett Center which looks likely to delay its opening past the November deadline.

“No matter what happens, we’re extending the time frame, so there’s no beating around the bush on that one,” said Mattapoisett Select Board Member Jordan Collyer during an Aug. 10 meeting.

The bridge in question, which was built by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, is an elevated boardwalk that traverses the length of Goodspeed Island before crossing the water to connect to Depot Street on the West side of town center.

The bridge was built with composite panels made by gluing wooden boards together face-to-face to form three-foot-wide slabs about four inches thick, which have begun to cup significantly, form cracks between glued boards and create an uneven surface.

This stands in sharp contrast to the bridge on the other side of Goodspeed Island, connecting the existing bike path — which starts in Fairhaven center — to Mattapoisett. Though that bridge was also built by the Department of Transportation, it was made using regular planks and has not had any of the same problems as the composite slabs.

“On the other side of the project, on the east side, it’s a different material that was used,” said Collyer. “It’s just regular wood — not a laminate, not anything funky — which is used on most bridge projects like this, and it looks great and there are no issues.”

To solve the problem, a report by Gill Engineering Associates recommends that panels with a quarter-inch or more of arching be cut in half lengthwise, making two 18 inch wide panels, then secured using extra bolts.

This solution is not perfect though. In addition to a small amount of residual cupping, the change in panel width would reduce the load rating of the bridge.

The Select Board was firm in its stance that it would not abide any perceived corner cutting by the Department of Transportation.

“Under no circumstances is the town in a position to accept a project that has an inferior product,” said Collyer. “Unless it involves replacing it with something more reliable like they have on the other side — because it’s two different products — I don’t understand why we would even entertain taking the product.”

The bridge delay is yet another setback to a much-delayed bike path opening, originally slated for spring 2021. The path is part of the South Coast Bikeway project, which aims to create a path from the Rhode Island line to the Cape Cod Canal.

With the Marion connector adjacent to Industrial Drive complete, the bridges are the only piece of the puzzle left before riders can travel from Fairhaven to the Marion line entirely by path and shared-use roads.

Other not-yet-completed portions of the path, which are slated to go through Mattapoisett Center and up to Industrial Drive, are supplemented with bike-accessible roads, including Main Street, Park Street and North Street.

But with the Marion portion of the bike path still in the planning stages, bikers will have to wait a while to pedal across town lines.

Town Administrator Jay McGrail said that the construction and design documents for the path are about 75% complete with construction slated to begin in fiscal year 2023.

McGrail said that the project was recently moved up by about a year by the Department of Transportation.

“So that’s good for us,” he said.