Babb’s Bridge to be repaired after an overweight truck fell through last month. Bob Lowell / American Journal

Babb’s Bridge, spanning the Presumpscot River between Gorham and Windham, is a  replica without historical status, but will be saved after a dump truck crashed Aug. 23 through the deck and dropped into the river.

State authorities said the truck, loaded with gravel, weighed 36,000 pounds and broke through the covered bridge posted for a 6,000-pound load limit.

“We’re going to repair it,” Paul Merrill, Maine Department of Transportation information officer, told the American Journal Tuesday in an email.

The department does not have an estimated cost of damages.

MDOT engineers inspected the bridge last week and the bridge is expected to remain closed until spring. The department had mulled replacing the single-lane span with a modern bridge. The now-closed bridge is located on Gorham’s Hurricane Road or Windham’s Covered Bridge Road.

The covered bridge that preceded the replica was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The bridge was destroyed by arson in 1973 and the rebuilt bridge opened in 1976.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, which governs the historic register, delisted Babb’s Bridge from its National Register of Historic Places just last year, a half century after Maine notified registry staff it had burned.

Gorham Historical Society President Suzanne Phillips said Tuesday the bridge, while a replica, is still significant. “It is on our historical driving tour of Gorham,” Phillips said. “Several people have said they wish the bridge could be repaired sooner.”

“But most of all they want it to be repaired and kept a wood-covered bridge,” Phillips said.

Bruce Roullard, president of Greater Portland Landmarks and also president of the Gorham Historic Preservation Commission, said the replica shared with Windham is not covered by Gorham’s historic ordinance.

Michael Goebel-Bain, national register and survey coordinator at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, said in an email to the American Journal that the replica Babb’s Bridge will become eligible for the national registry when it turns age 50 in two years.

The original bridge, according to MDOT information, was built in 1840. The accuracy of the date, however, is questioned.

History researcher Walter Lunt of the Windham Historical Society last week told the American Journal the construction date of the original bridge, he believes, should be 1864. Lunt cites “Images of America, Maine’s Covered Bridges” by Joseph D. Conwill as a source. “For this reason, I have always trusted the 1864 year,” Lunt said.

Goebel-Bain said the original was listed on the national register Sept. 7, 1972, under “Criterion A for transportation and Criterion C for engineering with a period of significance from 1850 to 1924 with a specific date of 1864.”

The Babb’s Bridge replica was assembled by MDOT crews using donated lumber milled in Gorham and MDOT crews will handle repairs according to a news release Aug. 27. The lumber will need to be milled specifically “to match the species and dimensions of the lumber on the bridge,” according to the release.

Phillips said Gorham and Windham historical societies will hold a joint discussion about the bridge, but a date had not been set as of Tuesday.