To quote a character in that old Paul Newman movie, you might say what we have here is “a failure to communicate.”

Frustrated residents affected by the protracted reconstruction of the Walden Street Bridge near Porter Square told representatives from the state and city at a meeting in early June they had not been told why it may take until March 2009 to complete work that began back in October 2006.

“My problem is that the communication has been terrible,” said Dan Bardige, who lives several blocks from the bridge on Raymond Street. “We don’t understand why these delays are happening. We’d like to know what you’re schedule is.”

He added, “We’re intelligent citizens. We can understand the reasons if you just tell us what’s going on.”

His concerns were echoed by Daniel Schutzberg, a Porter Square resident who said he has to take a daily detour around the bridge that often has traffic backed up for blocks on streets along the alternate route, including Raymond.

“I had a conversation with the on-site supervisor and he gave me information I didn’t even know existed,” Schutzberg told City Engineer Owen O’Riordan and Richard DeSantis, a construction engineer with the Massachusetts Highway Department. “This communication breakdown should not happen. It’s got to get better.”

The state owns the bridge, which spans the MBTA’s Fitchburg commuter rail line. When work began 20 months ago to remove the crumbling old bridge and replace it with a new two-lane span, estimates were that the job would be finished this year by early fall.

In May, O’Riordan said it would take an additional six months because workers found that shafts which provide structural support for abutments needed to be realigned, requiring additional analysis and redesign. He said a center abutment also had to be relocated farther away from a brick arch enclosing a nationally-registered historic cattle path.

O’Riordan said the city depends on the state for updates about the bridge work, but both he and DeSantis promised to do a better job of letting residents know how things are progressing through the use of e-mails and flyers sent through the mail and posted on bulletin boards at the construction site.

In addition, DeSantis said a quick review of the bridge redesign by the state’s construction consultant has shortened the new schedule by several weeks. If contractor J.F. White’s crew can work extended hours during the summer, it may be possible to finish the span in December, he said.

“We’re trying to do everything we possibly can to get the bridge open by the end of this year,” DeSantis added.

Store’s Business Suffers as Bridge Work Drags On

If that happens, it will be good news for Henry and Debbie Nguyen, owners of the Thistle and Shamrock store at 62 Walden St., adjacent to the construction site. Nobody has been impacted more by the prolonged bridge work than the Nguyens, who have seen the volume of their business drop by more than half since the start of the project.

Debbie Nguyen, an animated woman who has run the store with her husband for 15 years, says only the loyalty of long-time customers and the lengthy hours they put in to keep it operating has kept them afloat. When Walden Street was open to through traffic to and from Massachusetts Avenue, patrons could drive to the store and park in front. Now, they are mostly walk-ins from the neighborhood.

She said she and her husband, who have three children, have asked for some kind of compensation from the state and gone to numerous meetings with state and local representatives, but to no avail. “Why can’t they help us? I don’t understand,” she said.

City Councilor Marjorie Decker, who lives a stone’s throw from the Nguyens’ store, also has inquired about state aid for them, but hit a brick wall. “If we compensated everyone for lost business it would double the costs of construction,” DeSantis said at the meeting.

For now, Debbie Nguyen can only hope the construction work ends as soon as possible, although she is doubtful that it could be by the end of the year.

“I don’t believe what they say anymore,” she said. But, “We’re hard workers. We’ll get through. All we can do until this nightmare is over is wait.”

For earlier story, go to: www.cctvcambridge.org/node2926