Historic bridge restoration assisted by temporary bridge
The Great Vermont Flood of 1927 damaged several bridges in the northern part of the state, destroying the infrastructure in the region. Two years later, Richmond’s Checkered-House Bridge was built to carry Route 2 traffic over the Winooski River and rebuild the infrastructure damaged by the flooding. At over 350 ft long, the historic Checkered-House Bridge is one of the longest steel truss bridges in the state. Some 80 years later, in 2011, the bridge was deemed to be in good condition, but at only 20 ft wide, it was too narrow to accommodate modern-day traffic and needed to be widened. Additionally, by widening the bridge, load-capacity restrictions would be removed, opening up Route 2 to trucks. The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VAT) decided to widen the two-lane bridge but had to abide by the requirements of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1996. One such requirement was that Route 2 must remain open during construction.