PORTSMOUTH — For decades, the low-lying neighborhoods of Island Park and Portsmouth Park have relied on the Cove Bridge as their alternate “escape” route to higher ground whenever flooding overtakes the main thoroughfares at Park Avenue and Boyd’s Lane.

The government’s emergency management plan requires evacuation of the 1,300 Island Park residents whenever there is a hurricane — even one that would be expected to have minimal impact elsewhere.

So recent news of a 10-ton weight limit imposed on the bridge by the state Department of Transportation has furrowed the collective brow of elected officials.

Both the Town Council and the House of Representatives — through a resolution — are urging DOT to repair the bridge immediately.

DOT’s plan to inspect the deteriorating bridge every year, instead of every other year — without allocating funds for its repair — is “a wholly inadequate response to this situation,” according to the language of a resolution for next Monday’s meeting of the Town Council.

“What shape is it really in?” asked Town Planner Robert Gilstein.

“If they’re not planning anything except to look at it more frequently, what happens if further deterioration becomes apparent?” he asked.

The council agreed about 10 days ago to send a message of disapproval to the state transportation agency, but said it wanted the measure redrafted with stronger language.

The House resolution, sponsored by state Representatives Raymond E. Gallison Jr., and Amy G. Rice, both Democrats, and Joseph N. Amaral, and John J. Loughlin Jr., both Republicans, was enacted this month.

It points out that the new 10-ton weight restriction requires the town to re-route emergency vehicles and six school buses that circulate in the Island Park area during the academic year, adding about two miles to their travel time.

The Cove Bridge was built in 1961 to link Island Park with Route 24, about six years after the state finished the Sakonnet River Bridge and tore down what remained of the Old Stone Bridge that once connected Island Park with Tiverton.

From the time the Cove Bridge was completed, it was dubbed “the escape bridge” by locals, reflecting the fact that the loss of the Old Stone Bridge had put Island Park at a dead end, with only one way in and out.

DOT is “very receptive” to the ideas of the Town Council and the legislature, said spokesman Charles St. Martin.

But “it’s no secret that we have far many more projects than funding,” he said. DOT has had to drop the weight limits on “quite a few” bridges, most notably the Pawtucket River Bridge on Route 95 and the Sakonnet River Bridge.

Governor Carcieri has a blue-ribbon panel on transportation that is studying priorities for road and bridge repair, St. Martin said.

gmacris@projo.com