106-Year-Old Drawbridge Will Get Repairs Next Week

The drawbridge connecting Beverly and Salem broke on Friday afternoon and will require repairs early next week.

The Kernwood Bridge connects the Ryal Side neighborhood of Beverly to the North Salem neighborhood in Salem.

It happened at about 1:30 p.m. when the bridge was opened to let boats pass through on the Danvers River.

“When it was closed, the bridge operator heard a noise and called in inspectors to examine,” said Michael Verseckes, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, which owns and operates the bridge.

Verseckes said that inspectors found that a wedge on the bridge needed to be repaired. There are wedges at each corner of the swing portion of the swing-span bridge.

The wedges are used to secure the swinging span when it closes to allow traffic to pass over the bridge. It is part of the bridge’s design to make sure the swinging span can not open when it is in the closed position to allow vehicles to pass over it.

“The wedges serve to lock the span into place and prevent vibrations from larger, heavier vehicles from knocking it out of place or moving it,” Verseckes said.

Repairs to the broken wedge will happen at the start of the workweek and it is not expected to impact vehicle or boat travel.

The bridge, according to bridgehunter.com, was built in 1907 and an inspection in 2010 found the deck, superstructure and substructure to all be in poor condition. It carries 7,700 vehicles a day, according to bridgehunter.com.

Last June, Beverly resident Christine Beote wrote a letter to the Salem News suggesting that repairs to the Kernwood Bridge be considered along with other roads in the city.

“Currently, the bridge is similar to a tank trap, causing damage to car and driver,” she wrote at the time.

Unfortunately for Beote, next week’s work will be limited to the bridge’s swing mechanism and not the surface of the bridge.

The bridge opens for boaters from 5 a.m. to midnight.