UPDATED: Wickford Road Bridge Detour To Begin March 18

Starting today, MassDOT will begin preparations to close the Wickford Road Bridge. The bridge will close on March 18.

The MassDOT project consists of replacing both the concrete Central Street bridge and the steel Wickford Road bridge over the Sudbury River in Saxonville.

A public hearing for the $6.2 million project was held in April 2012 at the Memorial Building.

To minimize the length of the total project, MassDOT called for the complete closure of the Wickford Road bridge.

BETA designed the replacement superstructure to maintain the existing hydraulic opening and roadway profile, as well as to be installed quickly, by using continuous rolled steel beams and full-depth precast concrete deck panels. The use of the precast panels will allow the installation of the deck to be completed in a fraction of the time required for a traditional cast-in-place concrete deck.

The Wickford Road bridge is expected to be closed at least four months, according to BETA.

The Town of Framingham's website says the bridge will re-open in the fall of 2013.

Last year, Framingham Selectmen approved temporary construction easements to eight properties around the Central Street Bridge over the Sudbury River in Saxonville.

The easements are necessary for Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) to work on the bridge, which is expected to begin in the fall of 2013 and continue into the spring of 2014.