The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-01-01
DELAY || Y'';lskEl':;B
BRIDGE COMP ANY
Says it Is Unable to Put On
Bridge in Speci-
fled Time
CONFERENCE HELD
= IN BRATTLEBORO
Steel Plates Not Yet Obtained from
Rolling Mill, but Engineer St0rrs
Thinks They Could Be Gotten by De-
termined Effort

An unfortunate situation has arisen
with respect to the steel bridge which is
to be erected between this village and Is
land Park to replace the bridge destroyed
March 2S. The contractors say they are
unable to put on the structure within the
specified time, and they ask for an extern
sion of time. The prospects are against
an extension of time, although the town
officials of Hinsdale and Brattleboro are
not disposed to be unreasonable in the
matter, but is is perhaps more than pos
sible that the contractors will take more
time than allowed in the contract, at the
risk of being required to pay damages.
The situation was gone over at a con-
ference in the selectmens room here late
! yesterday afternoon, when there were
present Engineer Kittridge of the United
/ Construction Co. of Albany, y. Y, Engi-
neer Starr of the American Bridge CO..
| Consulting Engineers John w. Storrs and
! Edward Storrs of Concord. y. H.. repre-
senting the two towns, Selectmen Stearns
and Pike of Hinsdale. Selectmen Rich
mond. SteIlman and Wyatt of Brattle-
boro and Town Counsel Arthur p. Car
penter of Brattleboro
| Some time ago. as reported in The Re
\ former at the time, the selectmen We're
notified that there was delay in securing
| certain necessary steel plates from the
rolling mills for the fabrication of the
bridge at the Elmira plant of the Aneri-
can Bridge Co.. to whom the contract was
snb-let by the United Construction Co.
1his dlthculty Is still being experienced,
according to the bridge men. and this is
she main reason on which a request was
made yesterday for an extension of the
contract, which calls for the completion
of the bridge by March /.
/ The bridge men thought the time should
be extended until after the usual high
water IN the spring, which would mean a
delay in the beginning of construction
until late in April or early in Nav and
would mean that the bridge would not be
completed and traffic resumed until the
last Of June or first of July.
\ Engineer John w. Storrs was of the
OPINION that the bridge companies could
obtain the plates if they made a deter
mined effort. The contract was not
changed, and it is expected that the Sc
tectmen viii hear from the president of
the United Construction Co. the coming
week and that some definite proposition
viii be made.
/ If the bridge was ready and ice formed
on the river as thick as it usually does
and there was certainty that the water
level would not be lowered. the bridge
could be assembled on timberS on the ice
instead OF on temporary pile bridge as
was contemplated before the pile bridge
was carried out Dec. 10, but those are
uncertain contingencies. If the bridge
company should put in another temporary
pile bridge and the steel structure should
not be ready to put on until flood time. it
rs claimed that if the ice was frozen
Sohdly about the piles there would be dam
ger that the rising ice would lift the piles
out OF the river bottom. To avoid this
danger 1t would be necessary to keen the
piles free from ice.