Boston Road Bridge over the Shawsheen River

The Boston Road (Route 3A) bridge crosses the Shawsheen River at Pinehurst. The road here is the old road to Woburn, and the river was crossed near the Church Farm from the town's first years: in March 1660 John Parker, whose farm lay "on both sides the Shawshin," was appointed to help oversee "the work about the bridge and easway at Shawshin," and Jonathan Danforth was to answer the presentments about "Shawshin bridge." Whether that bridge stood at this exact spot is not recorded.

In 1903 the town paid $199.66 for "constructing a new bridge at the Shawsheen near Pinehurst." When the state macadam road reached the river in 1914, "a new bridge was required." In 1915 Town Meeting voted $2,500 toward it, expecting the State and County to share the cost, and the contract went to Harvey W. Tarbell of Lowell for $7,436.50; the work was delayed by high water. The bridge, completed in 1915-1916, is a reinforced concrete beam bridge with a 25-foot span. It was widened in 1930, when the town bought "the old Trestle of the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway on Boston Road, near Pinehurst Park" for one dollar to widen the road. In 1981 it was 66.5 feet wide.

The state bridge inventory names it the Paul Newman Bridge. In the floods of 2010 "the Shawsheen River overflowed in Pinehurst at the Paul Newman Bridge."

References

1. MACRIS BIL.919
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): John Parker and the bridge and easway at Shawshin, March 1660
3. Annual Report 1903: constructing a new bridge at the Shawsheen near Pinehurst
4. Annual Report 1914: state road reaches the Shawsheen, a new bridge required
5. Annual Report 1915: Article 19, appropriation for the Shawsheen River bridge on Boston Road
6. Annual Report 1915: contract with Harvey W. Tarbell for the Pinehurst bridge
7. Annual Report 1930: purchase of the old street railway trestle near Pinehurst Park for widening Boston Road
8. Annual Report 2010: the Shawsheen River overflows at the Paul Newman Bridge