Queen City Bridge back open after closure following inspection
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
The Queen City Bridge in Manchester is back open, days after it was closed because of potential structural deficiencies.
Traffic was moving in both directions Thursday evening.
The bridge was closed Monday after rust and a possible crack in the truss were found during a routine inspection. That prompted additional testing and evaluation to determine whether the bridge was safe for traffic.
“After a couple days of inspections, they were able to determine that the area that was of concern, presents no challenges, that there’s no structural integrity problems whatsoever,” Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais said. “They’re going to continue to monitor it. The impacted areas they’re going to clean, and they’re going to paint.”
Mayor Ruais said there will be no repairs at this time.
“The additional inspection and testing were conducted to ensure that the condition of the bridge was fully understood before it was returned to service,” DPW Director Tim Clougherty said in a written statement.
The Queen City Bridge sees about 25,000 passengers a day and while it was closed some of those people were inconvenienced.
“When it closed, it was, it turned a three-minute order into a ten-minute order. And you know that impacts earnings and time. And time is money,” Ali Mumtaz, a DoorDash driver said.
Some nearby businesses told News 9 they saw a big difference in sales in the days the Queen City Bridge was closed.
“Tuesday was like a ghost town on this side,” Jon Pinches, owner of The Packie Craft Beer Store, said. “The whole parking lot, I don’t think I’d seen it that empty in a while. There was just nothing going on in any of the surrounding businesses that I saw.”