BARRINGTON - Four more days. That's how long commuters have to wait before finally seeing the beginning of the end for the old Barrington River bridge. Mike Swift, a supervisor who will oversee the demolition of the 1914 structure for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, said work is scheduled to begin the first of the month and will likely take several months to complete.

The Providence-based Shire Corporation is doing the work on the $10.3 million project, which also includes building a replacement bridge and, finally, tearing down the temporary bridge now spanning the site several years down the road.

Diver Tony Remella emerges from the Barrington River after inspecting the bridges pylons. PHOTO BY RICHARD W. DIONNE JR.

The real demolition may not have begun, but already work is being done at the site. On Monday, Shire brought in commercial diver Tony Remella to inspect the bridge's underwater base, as well as the river bottom, in preparation for the demolition. A work trailer has been set up at the site, and Shire officials are meeting with DOT this week to finalize teardown plans.

Exact details of how the demolition will occur have not yet been released, but officials said the bridge will likely come down in small pieces, each broken off and carted to shore on a barge floated up the Barrington River to the site. Once the pieces make it to land, they will be carted away by dump trucks.

Barrington Harbormaster Ray Sousa has been a busy man in recent days, as he scrambles to accommodate boat owners whose moorings lie in the work field.

In all, he said, about six morrings will have to be moved so the barge has a clear path back and forth to the bridge. Most are held by commercial fishermen who use them even in the winter, so inconveniencing them as little as possible has been important.

"Four of them, we're moving to the harbor, and we're relocating the two remaining quahoggers" elsewhere in Police Cove, he said.

"I don't want to disrupt the livelihood of the quahoogers," he said. "I'm trying to accommodate them."

Even during demolition, he added, the passage under the bridge from the harbor to upper Barrington River will remain open. Mr. Swift said DOT officials were due to meet with Shire personnel again on Tuesday to go over more details of the demolition plan.

By Ted Hayes

thayes@eastbaynewspapers.com