The covered bridge connecting Gorham and Windham has been repaired.
That comes months after a dump truck plummeted through its floor, damaging the historic structure.
Joshua Polewarzyk was driving a Ford F750 about 12:45 p.m. on Aug. 23, 2024, when he tried to cross Babb’s Bridge, the Gorham Police Department said at the time.
The truck plummeted through the floor of the wooden bridge into the Presumpscot River below.
The Ford weighed 36,000 pounds, well beyond the 6,000 pound limit for the bridge. The Maine Department of Transportation said that the weight limit was first posted in 1983 and hasn’t changed since.
The Maine State Police issued Polewarzyk a $2,500 weight violation for the crash.
After inspecting the bridge, engineers determined some of its beams had been damaged when the truck went through the deck, the Department of Transportation said last summer.
The repairs weren’t expected to begin until the spring because the department anticipated it would take several months to procure the necessary materials, including lumber that needed to be milled specifically to match the species and dimensions of the lumber on the bridge.
Crews finished repairs Thursday, the Department of Transportation said Friday morning. In addition to repairing the deck, crews also replaced the bridge’s decorative doors.
Babb’s Bridge connects Hurricane Road in Gorham to Covered Bridge Road in Windham. The bridge was built in 1840. It was the oldest covered bridge in Maine until vandals burned it in 1973. The Maine Department of Transportation built an exact replica of the bridge using lumber milled in Gorham and “historically authentic construction techniques.”
About 360 vehicles cross the bridge on average every day.
Babb’s Bridge is inspected at least every two years. It was inspected just weeks before the dump truck crashed through the floor, according to the Department of Transportation.
