New England 4, February 15, 2023

Construction On International Span in Maine Reaches Its Halfway Point

Officials in charge of building the new international bridge connecting Madawaska, Maine, and Edmundston, New Brunswick, said recently that the project is on schedule and should reach its completion this fall.

In fact, the construction passed the halfway point in January, according to Greg LeTourneau, senior superintendent of Reed & Reed Inc., the project’s prime contractor. The company is based in Woolwich, Maine.

After a decade of planning, the new Madawaska/Edmundston International Bridge is replacing an old structure that lasted more than a century and was in extremely poor condition in its last

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Maine Can Move Ahead With Plans to Replace Decaying Frank J. Wood Bridge

A plan to replace a deteriorating and historic bridge on Maine’s Midcoast is moving forward, the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) announced Jan. 30.

The agency said that it had received

a final determination from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that allows the state to replace the Frank J. Wood Bridge, linking the towns of Topsham and Brunswick via U.S. Highway 201.

The finding comes after a yearslong, exhaustive federal regulatory and legal process, MaineDOT noted. That process has confirmed the state agency’s original conclusion that the

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Towns Ask State for Financial Help With School Construction

The state of Vermont has not funded school construction projects for almost 15 years, leaving local taxpayers to completely foot the bill for more than $200 million in school upgrades during that time, Vermont Public Radio reported Jan. 17.

The state Agency of Education admits there is a growing inequity between school districts that can get their projects passed by voters, and those that cannot. In addition, the agency noted there is now a backlog of projects that is potentially causing health and safety issues at the schools with the greatest needs.

At Green Mountain Union High School in Chester, voters recently rejected a $20 million bond proposal to upgrade that facility’s aging infrastructure. Todd Parah, the head of facilities at Green Mountain, said it is now up to the district to figure out a way to upgrade the equipment.

“Here in our school district, along with a majority of them in the state of Vermont, we’re not at a want-basis — we’re going to be at a need-basis,” he explained. “The systems are at their end-of-use life, and nobody knows where the

money’s gonna come from.”

Much of the equipment at the Windsor County school was installed back in the early 1970s when Green Mountain first opened.

A report last year from the Agency of Education found that Green Mountain Union High has some of the worst building conditions in the state.

Parah said the voters of the fourtown Two Rivers Supervisory Union District rejected the school repair bond because a lot of folks he spoke to were not willing to see their taxes go up to pay for the upgrades.

“The people I talked to were very understanding,” he told Vermont Public. “They didn’t feel like we were being frivolous with spending money that we didn’t need to spend. They just were having a hard time with such a big number for a small community.”

The “no” vote in Windsor County happened on the same day that voters in Burlington approved a $165 million bond for their high school.

So, while the students in Chittenden County can look forward to attending a modern, 21st-

century facility, the administration in Chester is just hoping that their ancient oil boiler at Green Mountain makes it through one more Vermont winter.

“The communities that have the political capital to pass bond issues will [do so],” said Vermont Secretary of Education Dan French, “and they will always continue to do that. The communities that struggle to do that are going to continue to struggle.”

Inequities Growing Among Vermont Districts

Vermont used to provide state money to communities to invest in their schools, using a formula based on square-footage per pupil. But as the projects got more complex, and expensive, the state shut down its construction aid fund in 2007.

As a result, Vermont is now the only state in the northeast without a school construction aid program. Vermont Public reported that state lawmakers want to change that, and they have asked the Agency of Education to develop a new way to decide who should get state funds if they become available.

French admitted that students cannot receive the same academic services when there is such a wide gap between towns that can afford modern schools and those that cannot.

“You know the policy around school facilities needs to be updated, renewed, [and] reimagined,” he added. “I think the piece that’s missing, and the piece I’m keenly interested in, is making the connection between school facilities and education opportunities and education quality.”

The Agency of Education is currently performing a detailed inspection at every school building in the state to get a better idea of what kind of work is needed, French told Vermont Public.

Small Towns Do Not Have Resources

Mark Tucker, who serves as superintendent of the Caledonia Central Supervisory Union in the state’s Northeast Kingdom, said he will be closely watching what happens with the school construction funding debate.

Danville School, a pre-K through 12th grade facility in his district with about 350 students,

needs more than $70 million in renovations.

“At this point, we’ve kind of hit a brick wall with the community for understandable reasons,” Tucker told the statewide news service. “The tax impact for some taxpayers could be pretty significant. The bottom line is without any state or federal support, it’s all on the backs of the taxpayers here, and I don’t think that’s going to sell in the community.”

He added that in his small town, where there are less than 2,000 taxpayers, there is simply no way the community can take on such a large construction cost by itself.

“This is a rural community, and we don’t have the industry base [or] the taxing capacity to raise money like Burlington does,” Tucker explained. “There’s the industry and businesses clustered in the Chittenden County area, and then there’s the rest of the state. We don’t have the resources here that they do up there.”

A vote on the school construction issue in Danville is at least a year away, but he said without state or federal help, he is not sure how his community will find the money for the needed facility.

Rough Timeline Set for Renovation of South Deerfield Library

In its first virtual meeting since it was formed, the Tilton Library Building Committee in South Deerfield, Mass., along with the project architect, laid out an estimated timeline for the $12.3 million expansion and renovation project’s design and construction, with a projected move-in date of spring 2025.

The Greenfield Recorder reported that the committee, which named Library Trustee Satu Zoller as chairperson, and Selectboard member Tim Hilchey as vice chair, held its first meeting Jan. 24. They were led through the renovation’s projected design and construction timeline by architect Philip O’Brien. Project Manager Dan Pallotta, who also is undertaking the nearby Greenfield Public Library project, was unable to attend the South Deerfield meeting.

“We’re looking, basically, at going out to bid in November,”

O’Brien said. “By the time we get down to the end of winter or to spring 2025, you’ll be glad to see Dan and I leave, and you can move into your new home.”

The Tilton Library’s upgrade, though, faces a long road before it is complete, according to the Greenfield news source. First, its design must be finished — while incorporating community feedback — and find two temporary locations: one for library operations and the other for storing more library materials.

Additionally, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), which is contributing a $4 million grant to the project, requires that Tilton Library remain open during construction.

Public feedback is expected to be gathered over the next several weeks during the schematic design revisions phase, which, according to O’Brien’s timeline, will wrap up in late March.

“I think the best thing to do is to have a pretty good idea of what direction you want to head in,” O’Brien told the committee, “and then present that to folks and look for their feedback.”

Committee member Judith Holmes, who also serves on the Friends of Tilton Library, asked when the library should seek permit approval from the Planning Board to which O’Brien said that would not be done until construction documents are about 75 percent complete, if not later.

“Typically, planning boards and building inspectors aren’t interested in plans that aren’t complete,” he explained, adding that if the blueprints are threefourths complete, that means there are “still 25 percent of ‘t’ crosses and ‘i’ dots missing. Based on this schedule, probably in September or October, we will talk about getting on their agenda.”

O’Brien admitted that the

timeline is a “living document” that could change at any point in the project.

Library Searching for Temporary Home

Finding a temporary home for the library is something the staff and town of South Deerfield will have to figure out over the next 10 months, the Recorder noted.

O’Brien told the library building committee that earlier projects have typically moved out in the bid phase, which is expected to occur in November, but there is often some variation.

“It’s really early for this conversation,” he said. “You are probably going to want to move out sometime at the end of the construction documents phase, and in during the bid phase. Some folks want to wait until they have the bid in hand before they move out.”

Library Director Candace Bradbury-Carlin, answering

Hilchey’s question on how much space the temporary library location will need, said the MBLC has flexible requirements for a temporary location.

“Any conversations we’ve had about it, especially with the MBLC, is to see what’s out there,” she said. “The library will adapt to the space that is given to us or that we’re renting, within reason.”

Preliminary ideas for the library’s temporary locations include the old Cumberland Farms building in South Deerfield, empty buildings and rooms available at the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association or Historic Deerfield, temporary classrooms at Deerfield Academy or Eaglebrook School, Tree House Brewing Co.’s office spaces, or the buildings across from the Red Roof Inn.

If necessary, the library may explore a request for proposals. 

Lewiston’s Tallest Building to Be Converted to Residential Space

After changing ownership three times in three years, the latest owner of the narrow Professional Building at 145 Lisbon St. in Lewiston, Maine, plans to convert the structure from office to residential use.

It is the tallest building in the city, and dates to 1915.

Jason Hutchins bought the 20,000-sq.-ft. structure from JL Dale LLC for $600,000. The deal was facilitated by Frank Carr of Maine Realty Advisors in Portland.

“We’ll do a renovation, using historic tax credits, to keep the feel but install modern features and finishes,” Hutchins said.

The Professional Building previously sold in December 2019 for $505,000, and again in December 2020 for $565,000, Mainebiz reported Jan. 30.

The idea behind the 2019 sale was to perform exterior and interior renovations as space turned over.

The next buyer, said Carr, divided the spaces into smaller offices to meet market demand during the pandemic, a time when people were looking for small, locked spaces to do their office work outside of their homes and where the costs of operations, such as internet and printing, could be shared.

By 2021, the building was fully occupied, Carr told Mainebiz, but its elevator broke down in January 2022, causing an exodus of tenants.

That, along with uncertainty in today’s

office market, the building’s narrow structure — 25-ft.-wide by 100-ft.-long – and the need for large capital expenditures, drove the latest sale, he said.

“To really succeed in that building as an office product, you need to divide the space into tiny offices in order to work for a small, targeted segment of today’s office market,” Carr explained. “Larger square foot tenants will not rent the Professional Building’s constrained footprint geometry. However, the office market rental rate, for small, 150-sq.-ft. offices that fit the geometry, doesn’t support large capital items like a new elevator [or a new roof, both of which are] needed.”

A timeline for when work will begin to renovate the Professional Building has not been nailed down, Hutchins told Mainebiz.

“We’re waiting for construction costs to come down,” he said. “We were hoping to start at this time, but we’re pushing it to springtime.”

Old Building Deemed ‘Architecturally Significant’

Designed by U.S. Bank architects Hutchins & French of Boston, the building, at the corner of Lisbon and Ash streets, was originally Manufacturer’s National Bank before divided into about 70 individual office suites in the 1960s.

According to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission’s historic resources

inventory, the 108-year-old Professional Building “is architecturally significant as the last major large commercial structure constructed in Lewiston prior to World War I. As such, this former bank symbolizes the highwater mark of the city’s fortunes as an industrial center.”

The interior design features neo-classical ornamentation, terrazzo floors, marble, wood moldings and five large, two-story ornate arched windows fitted with Chicago windows for functional airflow. These types of windows have a single fixed piece of glass with two narrow double-hung windows on each side, according to architecture.org.

Hutchins’ first project several years ago was the redevelopment of another early 20th century building, owned by his father, at 5 Washington St. in Biddeford. There, office spaces were converted into high-end efficiency apartment units in response to the city’s residential market demand.

Renovation Could Create Three Apartments Per Floor

With the Professional Building, Hutchins is going in a similar direction.

But, the narrow width of the building posed some interesting design challenges, he said to Mainebiz.

The biggest challenge centered on egress. The existing staircase and hallway run along one side of the structure. The problem was to

figure out where to fit a second interior staircase. The architect is still working on the final layout, but one idea is to build a second staircase at the back of the building, leaving the existing staircase and hallway mostly intact. That would result in three apartment units per floor of around 600 to 700 sq. ft. each.

Additional work will include installing new windows, roofing, fixtures and mechanical systems, and repointing the brick exterior.

Hutchins assured that the Professional Building’s historical details will be preserved. The apartment style is still evolving, he said, but the vision features the existing large windows and hardwood floors, with big, bright spaces.

Mainebiz noted that the building’s renovations are expected to cost around $5 million, with financing to come from a construction loan and tax credits.

The renter market for the Professional Building is likely to include college students, hospital staff, and employees of new businesses that are cropping up in downtown Lewiston, Hutchins said.

“We don’t feel the Lewiston market is quite where we’d hope it to be to invest this money,” he explained. “But we see other great buildings that people have done projects on, and others that are in the works. Hopefully, this brings people to the area and helps the town of Lewiston grow.”

New Expansion of Greenwich’s Bruce Museum Nearing Spring 2023 Finish

UMaine Builds World’s First Bio-Based 3D-Printed Home

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn., is on course to complete construction of its three-story, 43,000-sq.-ft. addition in the spring.

The new space at the renowned natural history and art gallery will feature the William L. Richter Art Wing for changing art exhibitions, and the museum’s permanent art collection, along with a 250-seat auditorium, a restaurant, new education and community spaces, and increased capacity for the museum’s gift store and storage space.

Built as a private home in the mid-19th century for Francis Lister Hawks, a noted lawyer, clergyman and historian, the original structure was later bought by Robert Moffat Bruce, a textile merchant who turned the house over to Greenwich for use as a natural history and art museum.

Later renovations over the years at the Bruce Museum, along with a growing collection of art and objects, have made the former residence a must-visit cultural destination in Greenwich.

Design Strikes Balance Between Nature, Art

The $65 million addition was designed by the New Orleans architecture firm of Eskew + Dumez + Ripple, with Cambridge, Mass.-based Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects creating a natural environment around the space that will include a sculpture trail.

Turner Construction Co., headquartered in New York City, is the lead contractor of the renovation and construction project.

Eskew + Dumez + Ripple designed the museum’s new wing to be faced with precast concrete panels and glass. The addition’s stonework references the striated geological bedrock found in local quarries while layered in banded proportions, forming a balance between the natural environment and artistic expression.

Building crews are currently at work completing the museum’s expansion plan dubbed “The New Bruce.” The effort will double the size of the museum by expanding its existing footprint, and the new wing design lies at the core of this process, Architect’s Newspaper noted Jan. 27.

The New York-based publication reported that the addition does not press up against the existing structure; instead, it stands apart as a separate building from the pale, gabled main building perched atop a stone base. A courtyard space between the two structures physically unites the two disparate designs. This interstitial landscape also serves as an

extension of the surrounding park.

A new sculpture garden, walking trails, and other natural enhancements to Bruce Park are other updates planned for the campus.

The Bruce Museum’s bucolic setting guided this latest renovation while also posing challenges: The site drops about 50 ft. in elevation, according to the expansion’s architects, and it was important to preserve the existing trees and rocks.

“From protecting the landscape to negotiating the steep hill both in design and through construction, the site was a challenging one to work on, but simultaneously the same things that will make the outcome so rich,” Javier Marcano, project architect with Eskew + Dumez + Ripple, told Architect’s Newspaper. “Truly a whole greater than the sum of its part, the Bruce’s unique experience is realized in large part from the dialogue between architecture, landscape, geology and topography.”

Façade Inspired By Regional Stone Fences, Quarries

A series of facade studies reveal the various points of inspiration the design team used when creating the museum’s facade before landing on the precast concrete panels. Among these were lace walls, seen in the stone fences built by New England farmers, and in the striated patterning of quarries along the Connecticut coast.

The facade consists of 80-in. modules of precast concrete panels composed of varying sized and shaped stones. This module size was chosen for the striking effects of light and shadow that are created during daylight, Marcano noted, while adding it was easier to ship and install. Resized iterations of the module will be found across the building and used to dimension the curtainwall glazing, the entry level’s rainscreen metal panels, and the stair risers, he said.

Prior to the expansion work, visitors to the Bruce Museum entered the gallery from the north, where the sloping site was hidden from view. To reimagine the museum’s approach, Eskew + Dumez + Ripple worked with Reed Hildebrand to design a new entry point in the addition, which faces the park. The architects collaborated with several consultants and manufacturers to create the success of the conception.

“Pulling from the insights of multiple disciplines, we were able to deliver a unique design that was constructible, performance-driven and beautiful,” Marcano explained. 

The University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC) is behind the building of BioHome3D, the world’s first 3D-printed house made entirely with bio-based materials such as wood flour, or fine sawdust, mixed with a binder made from corn.

The unique structure was built on the UMaine campus, according to Designboom, an online magazine based in Milan, Italy.

Layer by layer, the wooden home in Maine was 3D printed using an industrial polymer printer at the ASCC where there was little to no construction waste due to the precision of the printing process. The 600-sq.-ft. residential prototype features 3D-printed floors, walls and roofs from wood fibers and bio-resins. In addition, the house is fully recyclable and highly insulated with 100 percent wood insulation.

The 3D-printed wood bonds the walls and the ceilings and forms a sloping curve designed to shelter the homeowners, Designboom noted. There is a living room, kitchen, bedroom and a dedicated workspace that shares the sleeping area.

Home Equipped With Thermal Sensors for Testing

BioHome3D is positioned on a foundation just outside the ASCC at the university and comes equipped with thermal, environmental and structural monitoring sensors to test how the prototype performs in frosty climates.

The accumulated data can aid UMaine researchers in tweaking the design and materials to allow for the production of future home designs that can adapt to changes in the weather. The university hopes the introduction of BioHome3D will serve as a potential solution to the growing housing crisis and labor shortage that the New England state is facing.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills, for one, believes the ASCC and its experimental home can help address these serious challenges

“With its innovative BioHome3D, UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center is thinking creatively about how we can tackle our housing shortage, strengthen our forest products industry, and deliver people a safe place to live so they can contribute to our economy,” she said in a recent statement. “While there is still more to be done, this development is a positive step forward.”

see 3D page 12

Image courtesy of the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center The world’s first 100 percent bio-based 3D-printed home — BioHome3D.

Rendering courtesy of Eskew + Dumez + Ripple

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New Construction Will Replace Bridge That Stood for More Than One Century

years of service.

LeTourneau told WCSH-TV News Center Maine that the new bridge is being built using the latest technology. It will have a sidewalk for pedestrians, room for snowmobiles and ATVs, and will support the weight of the heaviest trucks in use, like 18-wheelers.

“It’s essentially set up like a 45degree angle from the [previous bridge],” he said. “That other bridge is 900 ft. long. This one is over 1,800 ft. long. There is about 315 ft. between each pier structure [on the new bridge].”

Replacement Is Joint American-Canadian Effort

Construction crews from the United States and Canada are each working on their halves of the bridge.

“They are very similar to us [and use] very similar work methods,” LeTourneau said in speaking with the Portland TV station. “So, it has been seamless, and they’ve been a pleasure to work with.”

The biggest challenge that both construction companies are currently facing is the weather. Right now, crews are working through the winter putting the formwork to support the concrete deck structure. Roughly 30 Americans are working on the U.S. side, and about 20 Canadians are on the New Brunswick side, LeTourneau noted.

“Currently, there are probably about 60 employees between our crew and our subcontractor in Canada,” he said. Another challenge faced by Reed & Reed are the logistics of getting supplies to northern Maine and across the border.

“We have to supply the materials to our subcontractor in Canada,” he explained.

New Bridge Built to Last for Another 100 Years

Madawaska town manager Gary Picard said that once the bridge is complete, it will boost business and travel between the two countries.

“It’s very vital to the economies,” he told News Center Maine. “Madawaska and Edmundston have grown up around it. I think this would be a different place if we didn’t have it, so it’s important for that to continue.”

Once work on the

Firm Believes Tech Can Alleviate Labor Shortages, More

3D from page 8

Making Low-Income Homes Possible

BioHome3D uses the kind of technology that can alleviate labor shortages and supply chain issues that are driving inflated costs and constricting the supply of affordable housing. As UMaine’s team puts it, there is less time needed for onsite building and fitting up the home because of the automated manufacturing that takes place off-site.

By using abundant, renewable and locally sourced wood fiber feedstock and the advanced manufacturing processes and materials developed at the university, future homebuilders could potentially reduce their dependence on a nonsustainable supply chain. That could make low-income homes more accessible and possible while being suitable to their owners’ space needs and desires.

“Importantly, as the manufacturing technology and materials production are scaled up, homebuyers can expect faster delivery schedules,” UMaine’s ASCC noted on its website. BioHome3D was developed with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hub and Spoke program, a partnership initiated in 2016 between UMaine and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. Other organizations involved include MaineHousing and the Maine Technology Institute.

Madawaska/Edmundston International Bridge finishes this fall, engineers estimate the new span to last for at least 100 years. The landmark will have some interesting features, including a flagpole in the middle of the bridge bearing the flags of both the United

States and Canada. Picard said that with some lighting installed underneath the structure, the bridge will be illuminated at night, allowing for residents and visitors to see the span from both Main Street in Madawaska, and from the Canadian side. 

ORNL awarded $7.6 million to the University of Maine System in December for Phase 3 of the Hub and Spoke Program. This phase will focus on continuing the development of sustainable, structurally reinforced materials while expanding into functionally modified bio-based materials using a wider range of materials, in addition to workforce development through a new Hub and Spoke program for undergraduates.

Deschaine Digital photo

The new bridge is being built using the latest technology. It will have a sidewalk for pedestrians; room for snowmobiles and ATVs; and will support the weight of the heaviest trucks in use, like 18-wheelers.

Deschaine Digital photo

The biggest challenge that both construction companies are currently facing is the weather.

Mass. Plans to Replace Perry Hill Road Extension Bridge

Massachusetts transportation officials are moving ahead with a plan to replace a small, obsolete bridge along the Perry Hill Road Extension, which spans over the north branch of the Manhan River in the town of Westhampton.

The single-lane bridge was built 67 years ago and consists of a single span steel beam with a reinforced concrete slab and gravel wearing surface.

“The bridge has been deemed structurally deficient by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and has been prioritized for replacement,” Doug Finn, administrative assistant of the town, told the Daily Hampshire Gazette in nearby Northampton. “The project will improve the bridge crossing to make it more stable, resilient to high water and less impactful to the ecology in the area.”

MassDOT hosted a virtual public hearing Jan. 31 to present the design for the proposed bridge replacement. Comments by residents about the project will now be taken into consideration in the determination of the final design, according to a letter from Carrie E. Lavallee, deputy administrator and acting chief engineer of MassDOT.

“We recognize that road and bridge construction can create inconveniences for the public,” her letter read. “MassDOT places a great deal of emphasis on minimizing temporary disruptive effects of construction.”

The transportation department added the Perry Hill Road Extension bridge is currently in the 25 percent design phase.

MassDOT Proposes Three Building Alternatives

The purpose of the project is to replace the bridge with a new three-sided precast concrete culvert capable of carrying standard highway loadings, according to MassDOT plans. In addition, construction crews will likely expand the roadway width between the curbs from 13 to 15 ft.

Existing abutments also will be demolished in an effort to align the river for optimal flow upstream and downstream of the new bridge, the Daily Hampshire Gazette learned.

MassDOT’s plans do not include the creation of a sidewalk across the new bridge or on any approach roadway sections. The road profile will be raised about 6 in. over the structure and will tie into existing grades at

the project limits.

Finn added that no permanent easement or takings are anticipated to replace the bridge structure.

During the virtual public hearing about replacing the bridge, MassDOT presented three alternatives to construct it, with the caveat that doing nothing to fix the structure “will further compromise the structural integrity of the bridge.”

They included using:

• Adjacent precast prestressed concrete deck beams or precast prestressed NEXT D beams.

• Steel rolled stringers.

• A three-sided precast concrete culvert on cast-in-place concrete footing.

MassDOT engineers and officials noted that they prefer the third choice in rebuilding the bridge. To do so, they estimate an eightmonth construction period that will include the demolition of the old structure.

The state agency proposes the bridge be constructed in one stage, beginning in the spring of 2025, with a complete closure of the crossing. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic will be detoured during that time.

The Perry Hill Road Extension bridge work is slated to be funded through the 2025 Transportation Improvement Program for the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization, according to MassDOT.

Currently, the estimated preliminary construction price tag of the replacement project is $750,000, exclusive of the right-of-way costs. 

“The project will improve the bridge crossing to make it more stable, resilient to high water and less impactful to the ecology in the area.”

Doug Finn Town of Westhampton

Frank J. Wood Bridge Will Be Replaced After Legal Battles

WOOD from page 1

safety, reliability and cost-effectiveness of replacing the bridge is the best solution.

A preservation fight also had delayed action on building a replacement for the old Frank J. Wood Bridge. State officials have long fought to build a new structure at the site but were met with legal challenges from community members who wanted to preserve its historic significance, WGME-TV in Portland reported.

As a result of the FHWA ruling, MaineDOT began advertising the project for construction bids on Feb. 1, to last four weeks, with an eye toward awarding the contract soon thereafter. The Portland news source noted that the state agency expects on-site work to begin the late spring.

Once complete, Brunswick and Topsham will be connected by a reliable new bridge over the Androscoggin River, according to MaineDOT. The planned structure is located on a curved upstream alignment that will feature enhancements requested by a local design advisory committee.

Designed to last for at least a century, the new span will have wider shoulders and sidewalks on both sides (including pedestrian viewing bump-outs), parks at its two ends, special railings, lighting, and other design details, in addition to unobstructed views of the natural and architectural features of the surrounding Pejepscot Falls site on the river.

Old Bridge Suffering From Serious Deterioration

The current Frank J. Wood Bridge was originally constructed in 1931, and 92 years later, the structure is described by

MaineDOT as being “fracture critical and rated in poor condition,” although the transportation department first began the process to improve the crossing as far back as 2014.

More recent inspections of the bridge, including one last October, have revealed severe section loss and aggressive deterioration.

That led MaineDOT, in November 2021, to prohibit all commercial vehicles from crossing the current bridge, including emergency vehicles and school buses. Although no further traffic restrictions are imminent, the agency said it would closely monitor the bridge and take added steps, if necessary, to protect public safety until construction begins.

In 2017, a preliminary estimated construction cost of a new span to replace the Frank J. Wood Bridge was $13 million. Due to the legal and process delays, as well as a concurrent market increase in construction costs, MaineDOT last fall estimated the rebuilding effort to cost $33.5 million. Before October’s inspection, the agency had resigned itself to the fact the new bridge would be much more expensive than the 2017 estimate, as would the cost of other alternatives considered, including rehabilitation.

“It has been a long process, but we look forward to delivering the new bridge to better connect these two communities and the travelers of Maine,” said MaineDOT Commissioner Bruce Van Note. “It will be safe, reliable and serve all users well, including motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.”

Once the new Frank J. Wood Bridge over the Androscoggin River is finished, it will be the seventh crossing structure at the site since 1796. 