As many of you know, starting in Spring 2025, the Vermont Agency of Transportation will begin a three-year project to replace the Depot Street Bridge in downtown Bellows Falls.
Built in 1909 and showing significant signs of deterioration, this concrete arch bridge spans the Bellows Falls Canal and connects Canal Street and the center of town to the Bellows Falls Island for vehicles and pedestrians.
Two bridges will replace the 1909 structure. A new pedestrian-only bridge will sit just south of today's Depot Street Bridge while a new vehicular bridge will be built north of the current site, parallel to the New England Central Railroad bridge. You can get a good sense of the location of the new bridges in the aerial photograph on our home page.
Social media gives us a great opportunity to keep the community fully informed about planning for the new bridges and, once construction begins, the schedule of work and likely impact on our community. You can sign up to receive these regular updates via email below.
Connecting Past, Present and Future
The lead time before construction gets underway gives us an opportunity to look back at the long history of our bridges and their role in the development of Bellows Falls and the Town of Rockingham over the past 300 years. In many ways, our bridges tell the story of our town.
In future blogs, we’ll explore the history of these bridges. And thanks to our local historical and preservation groups, we’ll share many rare photographs of the bridges and surrounding areas. You can view several of these images now on the Gallery page.
And, looking forward, we’ll share with you some of the ongoing plans to develop the Bellows Falls Island. When the design for Canal Street (Phase I of this project) has been approved by the Rockingham Selectboard, we will update you here.
Questions?
Finally, you can email us at any time with questions about the project and we’ll respond, either directly at developmentassist@rockbf.org or via the blog.
Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for the next post!
Betsy Thurston
Executive Director of the Bellows Falls Downtown Development Alliance
and Rockingham Development Assistant
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