RUMFORD — Upper Swain and Isthmus road residents inconvenienced by Tropical Storm Irene’s washout of two culverts Sunday won’t have to wait weeks for relief.
Rumford logger Jim Nicols of Nicols Brothers Logging Inc. learned of their predicament on Friday from a Sun Journal story and offered the town use of his 46-foot-long temporary bridge, Town Manager Carlo Puiia said.
That’s why Public Works Department crews were shoring up both sides of the Bean Brook gap on Swain Road on Friday.
“We had to do that anyways in case we had more storms or we’d have some more erosion and some more damage here, so it worked out very well for us,” Puiia said.
“Of course, we’re very appreciative of Jim’s generosity to offer us the use of his bridge.”
Puiia said some members of the highway crew volunteered to work Saturday morning with Nicols to install the bridge.
“So we should have this road open by noontime tomorrow, so that’s our goal,” Puiia said.
Like other damaged sections of Swain and Isthmus roads and Spruce Street, traffic will be limited to one lane across the Nicols bridge. But the type of traffic isn’t being restricted.
“Currently, we’re not eliminating anybody,” Puiia said.
“We thought about limiting the weight across it, but again, it’s a bridge they use in the woods to transport their logs across, so we know it can handle any kind of weight going across.”
That was welcome news, he said, because town officials were concerned that emergency vehicles might not be able to use the bridge.
“We’re very pleased because we were concerned about the emergency vehicles being able to access for the citizens, and just the concern about the citizens being inconvenienced with the high cost of gas, increases in time for them to travel, so yeah, we’re very pleased, very happy,” Puiia said.
“It’s nice to get some good news.”
“That’s the greatest news we could have heard,” John Martin of 336 Swain Road said of Nicols’ offer. “We can’t thank this guy enough.”
Martin said he and other residents wanted the town to put in a walking bridge so they could park their vehicles in his driveway and walk to vehicles parked on the other side to get to where they needed to go.
“We thought it was going to be months before anything got done, but (Nicols) said he could put it in tomorrow morning,” Martin said.
“Jim Nicols, I cannot praise that man enough, him and his family, for letting us use that bridge up here.”
“We owe that guy, because that’s going to save everybody, but that’s a good neighbor right there,” he said.
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- Rumford Selectman Brad Adley, second from left, responds to a Swain Road resident’s question on Friday afternoon at the large washout at Bean Brook. Jim Nicols of Nicols Brothers Logging Inc. of Rumford has donated use of his 46-foot-long bridge for single-lane traffic until the town can repair the damage.
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