SHELBURNE — Residents want town officials and engineers to consider potential impacts on abutters as they begin planning for the repair or replacement of an old bridge on Bardwell’s Ferry Road at Dragon Brook.

The Selectboard held a public hearing over Zoom last week, opening the virtual floor to residents to voice their questions about or concerns with the upcoming project.

“Personally, I don’t think this is a repairable structure, but we won’t know that until [we hear] what engineering says,” Highway Superintendent Jeff Johnston said. “I think it’s going to be beneficial for all the residents to have a real structure that’s going to meet the Massachusetts Stream Crossing Standards so it’s going to be able to withstand what they call a 50- or 100-year storm.”

Johnston said the bridge is old and unsafe, and the town is applying for a MassWorks grant to start the engineering work to either replace or repair it. At this time, the town does not know when construction might occur and what the total cost would be, but a public hearing was needed to move forward with the grant application process.

Abutters in attendance at the hearing asked if repairing or replacing the bridge would mean it would be widened to a two-lane bridge, requiring the town to take some of their land, and prevent access to their fields. Johnston said he does not know what the engineers will say is required to upgrade the bridge, but he will keep residents in the loop and work with the engineers to limit impacts on abutters.

“They have to work around you guys, not the other way around,” Johnston said.

Further public hearings and information sessions are expected to be held throughout the process as engineering and design work proceeds.

“We have a long road ahead of us before we have a new bridge,” Selectboard Chair Rick LaPierre said, “but we’ll try to keep everyone informed.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.