At 2 p.m. Tuesday Melinda Loberg’s cherry red Jeep was the first vehicle to cross the new Lagoon Pond Bridge. Ms. Loberg honked her horn and her passengers Mark London and Scott Tuttle waved out the windows as the drawbridge officially opened to vehicular traffic.
As the years-long, hugely expensive Lagoon Pond drawbridge project enters its final phase, state contractors confirmed this week that the bridge must stay in the down position from Oct. 1 to Jan. 31.
The Lagoon Pond bridge will be closed to traffic the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 7. The bridge is scheduled to close at 7 p.m. and will reopen at 5 a.m. on Wednesday morning.
After nearly 10 years as a work in progress, the final phase of construction on the Lagoon Pond drawbridge in Tisbury is slated to begin this fall. “It’s been a long journey, I would say,” said Tisbury Department of Public Works director Fred LaPiana. “It’s nice to see it come to fruition.”
Moving trucks arrived at the Lagoon Pond drawbridge Monday morning as the state took the next steps in a plan to raze a home tucked under the bridge that is owned by a longtime Vineyard summer family.
The home, owned by Charlotte Holloman, is slated to be demolished to make way for the new bridge project that begins in the fall.
Dukes County sheriff Michael McCormack confirmed that his office had issued a warrant of possession at the Holloman home, which is similar to an eviction notice.
On the morning of May 22, Charlotte Holloman packed up a few items, helped her 91-year-old mother into the car and drove away from their home at the edge of Lagoon Pond for what could be the last time.
Barring a last minute reprieve by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the house will soon be demolished to make way for the new Lagoon bridge.