BACHELDER’S GRANT TOWNSHIP – Route 113 through scenic Evans Notch in the White Mountain National Forest will be closed Friday, Nov. 14, for a $500,000 bridge replacement project.

The road is normally closed to winter traffic and reopened after the snow is gone.

Maine Department of Transportation crews will remove the temporary span over Little Lary Brook, which flows under Route 113 less than half a mile south of the Gilead town line.

The previous bridge, which was 17 feet long and 18 feet wide, was washed out by heavy rains on the night of July 11, 2007.

Two New Hampshire youths escaped serious injury then when their car jumped the washed-out bridge, but two Gilead firefighters searching for them were injured when they crashed a firetruck into the bridge abutment, according to Oxford County police.

Technical Construction of Turner will remove and replace the bridge. The new bridge will be 60 feet long and 22 feet wide. The Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division is funding the replacement using relief funds for federal roads, according to MDOT spokesman Mark Latti.

Crews will work through the winter to replace the bridge, but snowmobilers, Nordic skiers and others who use the road when it is closed for the winter will still be able to do so, Latti said Tuesday in a statement.

The road is a section of ITS 80, part of Maine’s Interstate Snowmobile Trail System.

“Even though this section of the road will be closed this winter, those who wish to access ITS 80 can do so from the Route 2 rest area in Gilead,” Latti said.

If the project proceeds as planned and there are no unanticipated problems, Latti said MDOT would reopen the bridge April 1, 2009. Whether Route 113 opens then is dependent on the severity of winter and how much snow remains at that time. The entire project is expected to be completed by May 30, 2009.