Last modified: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:27 AM EDT State to hasten work on lower County Street bridge BY GEORGE W. RHODES SUN CHRONICLE STAFF ATTLEBORO - Complaining commuters and beleaguered businesses that depend on the County Street railroad bridge are expected to get some relief from a long-term shutdown of the span, officials said Monday. The state's highway department has offered to hasten reconstruction of the bridge by authorizing work seven days a week, Mayor Kevin Dumas said. And once the bridge is 80 percent complete, officials will open it to one-way traffic, said Dumas, who met with a project manager from MassHighway on Friday. It's not known how much time the strategies will shave from the shutdown of the main artery in the southern end of the city, but it should shorten the project. "I'm happy," Dumas said. "It's designed to facilitate progress." While some, including Dumas, had hoped that one lane could be kept open during construction, a state engineer told him that the bridge would be too weakened by the work for it to be safe to do that. Businesses located near the bridge have lost money and commuters have lost time due to detours caused by the shutdown. The bridge has been closed for almost a year along with a nearby span over the Seven Mile River, which is in the process of being reconstructed. That job is expected to be done by the end of next month. It's costing the state about $6.6 million to fix both bridges that are only about 100 yards apart. The bridges couldn't be worked on at the same time because it would cut access to whole neighborhoods and hundreds of homes. Councilor Walter Thibodeau, who lives in one of those neighborhoods - Liberty Estates - and who has been lobbying to keep one lane open on the bridge which spans the Amtrak railroad, described the new work schedule as "progress." While the new plan isn't ideal, it's probably all that can be expected since a contract and the job are already in progress, he said. "It think they've tried to do what they can," he said. "Am I satisfied? I think I have to be." But Thibodeau believes the extra work days will be a good incentive for the contractor to move faster. "It gives him the chance to get more money and get done sooner so he can bid for more jobs," Thibodeau said. GEORGE W. RHODES can be reached at 508-236-0432 or at grhodes@thesunchronicle.com.