LYNDEBOROUGH – At the request of the Heritage Commission, the road that crosses the two stone arch bridges beside Old Temple Road was cleared of many years of brush by the Highway Department so that people can again walk across them. The arches can be viewed from the new bridge just upstream, but the new bridge is too close to the old for a good view from a passing car.

The plan, begun in 1999 in cooperation with the state Department of Transportation, redesigned the intersection of Old Temple Road and Route 31. The stone arches were by-passed with a new steel and concrete bridge, and the abandoned section of road was proposed for a park/picnic area. That idea was not followed, and the Heritage Commission is now considering it as well as having the arches evaluated by a specialist. They have not been inspected since the new bridge opened in 2005.

Historian, and former Selectman Scott Roper, has done extensive research on the town’s roads and bridges for an up-coming new town history. He said Old Temple Road is one of the oldest roads in town.

Roper’s research indicates the bridges were constructed in 1873 by Alvaro Buttrick when he reconstructed a former dam in Stony Brook. The town accepted the bridges in 1893. They began showing wear from heavy traffic by the 1970s. Being one-lane without guard rails, they were considered a hazard.

The arches are recognized as historic and representative of a nineteenth-century tradition of stone arch bridge building., They are not on the Historic Register, but Roper said they are eligible to be placed there. The Heritage Commission may consider that possibility.

The new town history is a years-long project of the Historical Society and is expected to be completed this summer.