The state plans to install a temporary bridge to replace an 80-year-old span on U.S. Route 2 in Middlesex that has become unsafe.
The bridge between Middlesex and Moretown was closed on Friday.
Workers will soon begin tearing it down and installing a temporary one-lane bridge, which is expected to cost $750,000. The Agency of Transportation says the temporary bridge could be installed by Labor Day.
The bridge was slated to be replaced in 2010. It became the subject of a press conference last year after a bridge collapsed in Minnesota. Federal Highway Administration data show that a bit more than 16 percent of Vermont’s 2,600 bridges were rated structurally deficient as of 2006, compared to about 13 percent of bridges nationwide.