Pile driving at Taunton's Scadding Street bridge brings daytime noise through Dec. 31

TAUNTON People who live near the Scadding Street bridge over the Snake River in Taunton can expect daytime construction noise through the end of the year as MassDOT crews drive piles for the new bridge, The Taunton Daily Gazette reported Saturday. Citing a MassDOT community announcement, the Gazette said the work began Monday, Oct. 26, runs from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and is scheduled to continue through Dec. 31, weather permitting.

The Gazette also reported that drivers should not run into lane closures from this work and that MassDOT said nearby residents and travelers may hear the noise as the piles go in. Scadding Street itself stays closed to through traffic at the bridge, with the detour in place.

What the crews are doing

MassDOT's project page for the job, updated Wednesday, Oct. 28, says the contractor is pumping water out of the work area and excavating on the south and north sides of the bridge. The page says crews will also begin welding shoes, the protective tips, onto H-piles, the steel beams driven into the ground for the foundation, and start driving them in the south cofferdam, the temporary watertight enclosure that lets crews build the foundation below the waterline.

The page lists normal work hours as Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., a shorter day than the 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. window in the announcement the Gazette cited. Residents with questions about the hours can call the MassDOT District 5 construction office at 508-884-4281, the number the city lists for state projects.

The project and the detour

The job replaces bridge T-01-024, which carries Scadding Street over the Snake River just north of Lake Sabbatia. MassDOT lists a construction bid price of $11,024,011, gave the contractor notice to proceed on Oct. 3, 2025, and puts the contract at 28% complete. The page lists the funding as federal aid under the accelerated bridge program.

The city's road construction page says the closure was scheduled to start with the contractor's mobilization on Feb. 17 and to carry through the winter of 2028, with demolition starting April 13. The city said the work would be done inside the site barriers with little impact on neighboring residents. MassDOT's Mass511 service still lists Scadding Street southbound as closed for more than six months.

MassDOT's detour plan, linked from the city's page, sends traffic around the closed stretch on Field Street and Bay Street, west of Lake Sabbatia, with portable message boards telling drivers the street is closed to through traffic and to follow the detour.

The project has been in the works for a decade. MassDOT's records show its project need form was filed in June 2016. The design went to a public hearing on June 8, 2021, and the job was advertised to contractors on July 12, 2025.

A separate job on Bay Street

The Scadding Street work is a different project from MassDOT's bridge preservation job on Bay Street over Interstate 495, which has a bid price of $4,577,477.50 and is 39% complete. That page, last updated Oct. 5, says a painting contractor is putting up staging under the bridge to blast and paint its steel beams while another crew continues joint and steel repairs. It lists work hours of Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with periodic lane closures.

Route 140 closes overnight next week

Drivers also face overnight closures at the Route 24 and Route 140 interchange next week. MassDOT's Mass511 notices show Route 140 closed in both directions between Exit 19 and Route 44 from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights. The Route 24 southbound exit ramp to Route 140 at Exit 17 and the Route 24 northbound ramp to Route 140 northbound at Exit 17B close during the same hours, with lane closures on Route 24 in both directions between Exit 16 and Exit 20.

Daytime lane closures are listed Monday through Friday on Route 24 in both directions between Exit 16 and Exit 20, on Route 140 northbound between Route 79 and Route 24, and on Route 44 between Route 140 and Route 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., except Route 24 southbound, listed from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. On I-495 southbound, lanes close between Route 123 in Norton and Route 138 in Taunton from 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.