After months of waiting and economic hardship, residents and businesses on lower County Street in Attleboro got some good news last week: The new bridge over the Seven Mile River is finally open.

Now for the bad news. The Amtrak railroad bridge just a little further down County Street is closed.

That work is expected to take another two years.

There is no doubt both bridges needed to be replaced.

The Seven Mile River bridge was actually a “temporary” span installed several years ago by the Army Corps of Engineers. The rail bridge was also badly out of date. It was narrow and high-backed and posed a risk to every vehicle driven over it.

But that doesn’t change the fact that — taken together — the two projects will mean at least some residents and commercial operations will have been cut off from the center of the city — and from neighbors and potential customers — for nearly three years.

While construction officials have agreed that the project is important enough that crews will work a seven-day schedule, they need to do more.

The city should press the state highway department to reconsider its decision, a rather hasty one, not to keep one lane of the bridge open during the construction phase of the project.

There is no reason Attleboro residents should live any longer than necessary across a bridge too far.