The Lagoon Pond drawbridge will be closed for repairs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. all next week while MassHighway workers replace some of the bridge's structural steel. Traffic along Beach Road will be diverted to the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road during those hours.

"This is part of the ongoing effort to make interim repairs as we work toward installing the temporary bridge and eventually the replacement," MassHighway spokesman Jon Carlisle said yesterday.

Drawbridge Is Up for Repair

Highway Agency Unveils Its Plans for Temporary Bridge Structure Allowing Time to Replace Lagoon Pond Bridge

By CHRIS BURRELL

State officials yesterday unveiled a plan to build a temporary drawbridge alongside the aging and troublesome Lagoon Pond drawbridge.

The cost of the temporary bridge is a shocker - $3.8 million.

Smooth sailing has all but disappeared underneath the Lagoon Pond drawbridge these days.

Three weeks ago, bridgetender Robert Maciel detected some shaking as cars passed over the 70-year-old bridge.

"I've been the bridgetender for 26 years, and it's worse now than I've ever seen it," he said late yesterday morning from his home in West Tisbury, a time of day he typically spends at the bridge.