New England 21, October 11, 2023

Aetna Bridge Leads Goldstar Bridge Rehabilitation Job

By Chuck MacDonald CEG CORRESPONDENT

Built in the 1940s, the northbound span of the Goldstar Memorial Bridge continues carrying five lanes of I-95 traffic safely across the Thames River from New London to Groton in Connecticut.

Although inspectors have declared the bridge to be safe, the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) has decided to keep it safe well into the future by commissioning a project to strengthen the northbound bridge.

The job will have three phases, totaling approximately $407 million, with the entire project due to be completed in 2029. The phases include rehabbing the truss spans, work on the approach span, fixing bearings, concrete repairs, improved drainage systems, and finally a full deck replacement.

The box truss bridge, the largest bridge in the state, is just more than a mile long and carries approximately 60,000 vehicles daily. The bridge also passes over railroads and local roads, making it a key transportation artery in the state.

see GOLDSTAR page 12

Construction to Begin On $23M Housing Campus for Military Vets in Franklin, N.H.

With $23 million in federal funds, Easterseals NH is set to begin construction of its 15-acre military and veterans campus in Franklin, N.H., in October.

The project, a retreat for veteran and military members and their families, has been made possible by money awarded to Easterseals NH from the state through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and New Hampshire Fiscal Recovery Funds, the Concord Monitor reported Sept. 20.

“The Easterseals NH Military & Veterans Campus will change lives, support families, and offer a much-deserved way of saying thank you to all who have served or are serving in the military today,” said Andy MacWilliam, chair of the nonprofit’s board of directors.

At its core, the goal of the project is to transform and connect two existing historic buildings in Franklin into affordable rental housing for veterans and their

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MassDOT’s Removal of Tobin Bridge’s Lead Paint Chips a Prelude to Major Rehab

Environmental advocates in Chelsea, Mass., say they are seeing less toxic lead paint chips fall to the ground from the Maurice J. Tobin Bridge due to mitigation efforts the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) put into place after hearing calls for action.

The agency installed temporary netting in July that has been catching chips, and frequent vacuuming has collected the flakes that fall to the ground, the Boston Herald reported Sept. 13. Inspections also are being conducted weekly.

These strategies are in place as MassDOT has its eyes on a much larger project that would clean the 2-mi.long bridge and replace its decades-old paint with new coatings.

The Tobin Bridge carries U.S. Highway 1 traffic over the Mystic River between Boston and Chelsea.

The effort, estimated to last up to four years and cost $127.9 million, also would repair the steel and concrete on the threespan double-deck cantilevered truss bridge, first opened to traffic in 1950.

Residents, Environmentalists Happy to See Action

GreenRoots, a community-based environmental justice organization, is one of the groups providing insight to MassDOT on what residents would like to see be accomplished to better protect the community while the project is under construction.

“We are very appreciative of their commitment to ensuring that there’s mitigation from the lead paint chips that have been falling off,” Sara Aman, GreenRoots’ interim codeputy director, told the Herald.

In the 1970s, lead was found in the Mystic River and in neighborhoods near the bridge. As a result, some of the city’s children were monitored for years as the subjects of a study on the effects of lead exposure during development.

The Boston news source reported that residents grew concerned earlier this year when they started finding paint chips in their yards and on the sidewalks surrounding the Tobin Bridge. Lab testing showed toxic amounts of lead contained in the flakes that are stripped from the structure by weather and time, causing them to rain down onto the homes and streets across the city.

“Moving forward,” Aman explained, “what we would really love is making sure that there’s always meaningful engagement and prioritization of environmental justice communities from the very beginning as opposed to letting toxic dumps and lead in our communities and addressing it afterwards.”

Guilford OKs Funds for Dam Repairs, Road Renovations

The Board of Selectmen in Guilford, Conn., unanimously approved a resolution to receive $3.5 million in grant money from the state to fund repairs to Lake Quonnipaug Dam and renovate the roadway that runs over the culvert that the dam spills into, connecting Conn. Highway 77/Durham Road with Hoop Pole Road and Lake Drive.

The dam sits at the south end of the lake, where spillover water from the lake flows through the culvert and into the West River, ultimately leading to Guilford Harbor.

Janice Plaziak, the town engineer, said that stones in the Lake Quonnipaug Dam are shifting, causing water to overflow and wash over nearby roads.

“The downstream culverts are severely undersized,” she told CT Examiner.

Renovation of the area will include refurbishing the dam with new stonework and a metal barrier, she explained, as well as replacing the three 36-in. diameter culverts that run under where Hoop Pole Road and Lake Drive cross.

Plaziak added that building the dam higher to retain a 100year flood is not feasible.

Mike O’Dowd, MassDOT’s director of major projects, said there would be no permanent lane closures on the bridge during construction and no impacts to adjacent roadways. Coordination also would take place with nearby construction projects, such as the Washington Street Bridge replacement in Boston’s North End and ongoing Sumner Tunnel renovation, he said.

“The public process has been critical in this just to ensure that [MassDOT] is taking all steps to ensure the health and safety of the residents of the city of Chelsea,” noted O’Dowd. “There will be a comprehensive public outreach.”

Issue Not Unique to Tobin Bridge

According to MassDOT, for decades lead paint was the industry standard for all steel structures in the United States that required painting, and it is estimated that 30 percent of the country’s steel structures are still coated with the toxic paint.

In 1978, paint containing the lead was suspended for American residential use but was allowed to continue for commercial and industrial applications. Finally, its use was largely suspended in 1992 on most steel structures, including bridges.

Construction on the the Tobin Bridge, New England’s largest, first began in April 1948 and after its completion has been painted many times since. However, due to its proximity to the sea and Massachusetts’ often brutal winters, that old paint has become brittle.

MassDOT noted that the state’s winters over the last several years, including the last freeze-thaw cycle this past year, have caused more delamination, or material fracturing, of the bridge’s paint than was typical, causing more paint chips to flake off and fall to the ground.

It is a condition common to all New England states that have lead-paint coated structures, the agency noted. 

“It would cause a backup of water and flood upstream properties,” she said. “We have to control the overflow during high storm events and make sure it doesn’t erode and spill into the culverts.”

With its current culverts being so small, Guilford wants to replace them with three box culverts, Plaziak told the local news source. Their exact size has not yet been determined, but she said they will be “significantly bigger than 36-in. pipes.”

Roadway Intersection Also Needs Redesign

The town’s improvement project expands beyond just restoring the dam and the culverts.

It also includes reworking the entire crossing of Hoop Pole Road and Lake Drive so that it becomes a perpendicular intersection crossing the West River. Currently, the two roads create an “X” pattern attaching to Durham Road in separate locations and at acute angles.

In order to do the necessary road work, the Guilford bought adjoining property in front of the dam on Durham Road for $225,000.

“The town purchased this parcel about a year and a half ago before it went into foreclosure because we were planning for this project,” Plaziak said. “There’s a house there, and we found out it has some historical significance.”

She added that Guilford is planning to work with Connecticut’s State Historic Preservation Office to mitigate the project’s impact on the house while making the interconnecting roads safer and less prone to flooding.

“We’re trying to take these two skewed-leg intersections and combine them into one, so it’s a little safer and more direct,” Plaziak noted. “These intersections with [Durham Road] aren’t ideal as [drivers] have to look over [their] shoulder.”

She added, “Part of the mitigation for preventing the roads from flooding is not just reorienting the horizontal alignment of the road, but also elevating the road so it does not flood on

see GUILFORD page 14

MassDOT installed temporary netting that has been catching chips, and frequent vacuuming has collected the flakes that fall to the ground.

New London to Replace Its Lead Water Pipes in $36M Job

The city of New London, Conn., is preparing to begin a $36 million effort to replace lead service water pipes with new copper lines for about 3,300 residences.

“This is a proactive measure the city’s taking,” Joe Lanzafame, New London’s public utilities director, told CT Examiner Sept. 8. “We don’t have any lead violations or issues with our drinking water, or any consent orders or requirements by the state or the federal government to remove these lines. We’re doing this proactively with the understanding that at some point in time, everyone’s going to be required to remove all of these lines anyway, so we wanted to get ahead of it.”

While a number of municipalities are planning to replace their lead service pipes, New London appears to be the first in Connecticut to reach the construction phase, according to a state project priority list.

CT Examiner reported that the threephase project will be funded through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, from which the city will receive three installments of approximately $5 million; and Connecticut’s Drinking Water State

Revolving Fund Program, administered by the Department of Public Health, with a subsidy of up to 30 percent of the project. The remaining funds — about $9 million — will be paid using monies from the city’s surcharge fund and a 20-year low-interest loan.

Lanzafame said New London will bond for the full amount — fully covered by fed-

eral, state, and surcharge funding — but in amounts separated into three areas of the city that were based on median household income and the census tract.

The city started an inventory of its lead service pipes about five years ago, according to Lanzafame, and has identified about 3,300 properties out of the 6,000 that have public water service.

New London is well ahead of the state Department of Health’s October 2024 deadline for municipalities to complete such an inventory, he said. The state program is based on a federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiative.

“The inventory is not due until October of 2024, so no one is late, we’re just early,” he added.

New London to Use ‘Pulling Pit’ Method in Replacing Pipe

Lanzafame explained that the preferred and most cost-effective method of pipe replacement is known as “pulling pit,” in which the existing pipe is replaced simultaneously with the new copper pipe, which minimizes the service loss time.

“The goal is to have the least amount of disturbance on the line because the lead line

is better left undisturbed than it is replaced in part. You’re less likely to have lead release on a line if you replace the whole thing,” he said.

The New London utilities director said the average cost to replace a residential water service line can range from $5,000 to more than $15,000.

“Having an identified lead service line could pose a challenge when selling a home,” said Lanzafame. “But what I really want to stress is that this is a major home improvement for the property owner at no direct cost to them, and a major infrastructure project that can bring the entire city in compliance with EPA regulations.”

City residents will be asked to sign a waiver to allow crews to perform the work, but they do have the right to refuse the pipe replacement, according to a news release from the city of New London. The work at each property is expected to last less than one day and property owners will be provided with bottled water while the replacement is under way.

Lanzafame told CT Examiner that the project has been put out to bid with a deadline of Sept. 27, and if the New London City Council approves the bond, work could begin mid-November. 

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Norwich to Build $200M Old Wastewater Plant Replacement

The largest construction project in Norwich, Conn.’s history is getting close to starting, and the city’s utility customers may pay a higher rate for their sewer service to help fund it.

At a city council meeting Sept. 5, officials with Norwich Public Utilities (NPU) and an engineering firm gave a presentation on the community’s Wastewater Treatment Plant replacement.

The project, expected to cost $200 million, will largely replace the current facility on Hollyhock Island, which was built in 1955 and has lasted far beyond its intended lifespan, said Craig Wagner, an engineer of Bostonbased CDM Smith.

Construction on the new treatment plant is expected to start later this fall, and will continue for five years, Wagner told the Norwich Bulletin.

Though the wastewater facility has had multiple upgrades over the years, most recently in 2018, the current condition of the plant is poor, though well maintained, he added. It also is inadequate in multiple categories, including safety, odor control and reliability.

Modern Wastewater Facility to Handle 20 Million Gallons Per Day

The Bulletin reported Sept. 9 that some of the project goals of the replacement plant, according to Wagner, include:

• Improving nitrogen removal to prevent algae blooms and save money on nitrogen credits from the state.

• Incorporating modern technology that is up to code, freeing the plant from its reliance on discontinued parts.

• Improving resiliency, so that when flooding, mechanical or electrical issues

occur, the entire wastewater treatment system does not shut down.

Other upgrades include an automated ultra-violet (UV) light system to help with disinfection, and increasing the amount of clarifiers at the plant, Wagner added.

Two challenges during the construction process include creating all new structures on a pile system and maintaining the function of the current wastewater plant through the process, according to an NPU overview.

The construction work will include a formal closure of the Hollyhock Island landfill, Wagner explained, adding that trees and brush are to be cleared, and the landfill will be capped to modern standards.

NPU General Manager Chris LaRose told the Bulletin that the capped land also could be used for solar power uses in the future.

The completed wastewater treatment plant will be able to handle 20 million gal. of wastewater per day, as opposed to 15 million gal. currently.

While there are no plans to expand sewer service in existing neighborhoods at the

moment, Norwich wants to offer the service to other towns, including Bozrah and Franklin, LaRose said.

Funding for the project will come from Connecticut’s Clean Water Act. A total of $72 million is grant funding, while the rest will be provided from a 2 percent interest loan to be repaid over the next 20 years by increasing the sewer rate by 12.1 percent over the next eight years, starting in November.

The rate increases are subject to the Norwich Board of Public Utilities Commissioners and Sewer Authority approval, LaRose said in speaking to the local news outlet.

The Norwich commissioners are scheduled to review rate increases for services at its Sept. 26 meeting.

If approved, the changes will be effective Nov. 1, said Chris Riley, manager of the city’s communications and community outreach office.

In the coming weeks, if all goes well, Wagner said that NPU will submit final applications to secure an authorization award from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to start the treatment plant construction. 

Flyover Bridge Work Begins On $196M Road Project

A massive, $196 million rehabilitation of Rhode Island Highway 146 is well under way, and in the coming months motorists in the northern part of the state will see a major change as construction moves to the building of a new flyover bridge across Sayles Hill Road in North Smithfield.

Charles St. Martin, a spokesperson of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), told NRI Now that construction of the new bridge will begin this fall. It is designed to eliminate highway travel through what is currently a dangerous intersection.

In August, RIDOT filed three-year temporary easements on 41 North Smithfield properties to accommodate the upcoming work. St. Martin said that none of the property owners, including businesses in the area, will permanently lose their lands.

The road project, which began last year, includes paving 8 mi. of roadway and replacement of multiple bridges. Construction on the existing bridges that carry Interstate 295 over R.I. 146 started last spring, and travelers have seen several different lane closures throughout the work.

While lanes may shift as construction moves to Sayles Hill Road, RIDOT’s St. Martin said the state agency will maintain the same number of through lanes on R.I. 146 as exist currently.

Project to Improve Road’s Safety, Congestion

State transportation department officials in Providence have considered R.I. 146 to be a critical highway route that has gone unimproved for far too long.

More than 171,000 vehicles travel the expressway between Providence and connecting roads to Worcester, Mass., each day.

The new flyover bridge will not only relieve congestion on the roadway but will mark a major safety improvement for northern Rhode Island commuters, noted NRI Now, a local online news service.

Currently the R.I. 146/Sayles Hill Road intersection averages more than 85 crashes per year and holds the only traffic signal on the state’s portion of the travel corridor, which stretches 16 mi. from Providence north to the Massachusetts border. That signal will be removed as the proposed bridge

will allow drivers to pass over Sayles Hill Road.

An impact study conducted by RIDOT noted that, currently, the travel time on R.I. 146 from I-295 to Sayles Hill Road takes around 10 minutes. Without improvements, though, the same distance would take 29 minutes to drive by the year 2055.

Once the new work is complete, RIDOT said the same stretch of highway is expected to take only five minutes to travel in 2055.

“The reconstruction of R.I. 146 will transform the entire corridor, improving rideability, functionality and reliability,” the transportation department noted on its website. “Connecting various towns, the project will help facilitate freight, commerce and recreation for a large and diverse region.”

According to RIDOT, other highlights of the project include:

• Replacing one bridge along the corridor and performing preservation or rehabilitation work on four others.

• Building frontage roads for easy and safe access to businesses at the Sayles Hill Road interchange.

• Repaving R.I. 146 from the I-295 inter-

change to the Massachusetts state line.

• Adding bus-on-shoulder accommodations along the southern end of the highway in North Providence and Providence.

• Extending existing fiber optic lines and Intelligent Transportation Systems and traffic monitoring from the I-295 interchange to the Massachusetts state line.

• Rebuilding the R.I. 146/R.I. 146A junction by removing dangerous U-turns and replacing them with a diverging diamond interchange.

• Extending the weave length for the R.I. 99 ramp to R.I. 146 South.

• Improving the geometry of the I-295 southbound off-ramp to R.I. 146.

• Building new drainage systems along the route.

• Replacing guardrails and making other safety improvements such as wrong way driving detection systems

The rehabilitation of the entire corridor is expected to be complete by 2026.

Due to the efforts of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation, RIDOT secured a $65 million federal INFRA Grant to help fund the project. 

Construction on the new treatment plant is expected to start later this fall, and will continue for five years.

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Goldstar Memorial Bridge Project Totals $407 Million

GOLDSTAR from page 1

Scott Thompson is the project manager of Aetna Bridge, who was awarded the contract for Phase 1, and supervises a team of approximately 70 workers for the current phase of the project. The job is not for the faint of heart as the workers do their jobs on a bridge that soars 110-150 ft. above the water at the midpoint of the bridge. The upper platform is 140 ft. above the water.

The bridge was bult with silicon steel, at the time a best-of-its-kind alloy, but now known to become brittle.

“We will be strengthening the structure to meet current standards,” said Thompson. “We will be removing 7/8-inch rivets and replacing them with 1-inch high-strength, galvanized bolts. We will also be adding strengthening plates at key points on the bridge trusses. In all, we will be putting 1.4 million pounds of steel into the bridge.”

Thompson estimates that the bridge was last given a full paint job 50 years ago. He understands that the coating system being applied will provide rust protection for an additional 50 years. The strengthening plates vary in size from 1 ton to 200 lbs. Aetna team members work closely with the painting team. After Aetna’s team supplies the new bolts and plates, the painting contractor paints the newly finished area.

Aetna Bridge’s activity required the company to build specialized work platforms to support the heavy lifting needed to hoist the metal into place for installation by the workers. The team used

see GOLDSTAR page 18

Crews install new drainage pipes with the Grove 770 and 1300 boom lift. Drainage moved to gain access to required steel repairs.

Ironworkers remove 7/8-in. rivets and replace them with 1-in. high-strength bolts, using mag drill to open holes to proper diameter.

Ironworkers are using a combination of electric and mechanical chainfalls to position truss strengthening plate into position.

Ironworkers drill and install a vertical chord strengthening plate.

Seen here is completed strengthening repair.

Construction Work Set to Begin On 15-Acre Military, Veterans Campus in October

VETERANS from page 1

families.

The new connector will enable residents and their guests to access all parts of the building, no matter their abilities, Easterseals NH noted on its website. It will include a ramp for entry into the building and an elevator to each floor.

The two buildings, known as Henry and Webster, will have 29 apartments and room for community space. In total, there will be 30 units of accessible, affordable rental housing on the soon-to-be-developed campus.

Other amenities planned for the Easterseals NH Military & Veterans Campus include:

• A hub of services with meeting and event space. Multiple military service organizations will be located there to ensure a continuum of care for each visitor to the campus, along with opportunities to hold events and training sessions.

• A retreat center made up of 20 short-term rental bedrooms, some featuring kitchenettes.

• Several therapeutic recreation com-

ponents, including access to a nearby rail trail along the Merrimack River, a multipurpose building for equine and dog therapy, a rock-climbing wall, ropes course, military-themed playground and an outdoor performance stage.

“This is truly coming together the New Hampshire way because there is no other facility within the region that has incorporated housing, hub of services, therapeutic recreation and family supports the way this project has been developed,” explained Maureen Beauregard, president and CEO of Easterseals NH.

Planners Visited Similar Sites Before FranklinDesigning Campus

Construction of the project’s first phase, which includes the affordable housing, hub of services, and portions of the retreat center, will begin in the coming weeks with completion date in early 2025, the Monitor learned.

Prior to embarking on the Franklin project’s design, Easterseals NH said it

convened a taskforce made up of representatives from the military and veteran community to make site visits of similar projects across the region. Additionally, its members interviewed dozens of military vets across the state and conducted surveys of known providers throughout New Hampshire to determine the highest needs for the campus.

While the multi-million-dollar federal grant is a significant boost, MacWilliam said Easterseals NH remains committed to raising additional funds to complete the retreat center and the therapeutic multi-purpose building.

“New Hampshire has one of the highest per capita populations of veterans in the country, so we know the need for access to programs and housing is high,” he added. “We are confident with the support of our statewide community, the nonprofit sector, private businesses, and citizens that we can raise the remaining funds needed to fully complete this incredible campus.” 

Town to Rework Entire Crossing of Hoop Pole Road, Lake Drive

a regular basis.”

Plaziak and her fellow engineers will likely also have to rebuild and raise a section of Durham Road so that it does not flood as well.

Plans Call for $3.5M Project to Start in 2025

The overall budget for the dam and road project is $3.5 million, which the grant would cover, but Plaziak said the town has allocated $300,000 for engineering and design costs which started before the grant money was received, as well as the cost for the property along Durham Road.

Town officials are hoping to break ground on the dam repairs and road upgrades in 2025, a project that will likely take up that year’s construction season from April to October.

The next phase of the project is speaking with consultants from both the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) and the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Plaziak said, the latter of which administered the grant and has oversight over dams in the state.

“We have to run all that through them,” she explained to CT Examiner. “Once we’ve met with the two state agencies, we’ll be doing some public outreach to inform [folks about] the project [and] what our preliminary plan is, along with taking public input to make the project even better.”

To do so, Guilford officials will be reaching out to community groups like Friends of Lake Quonnipaug, which is active in the area. These public information events should happen within the next six months, according to Plaziak. 

GUILFORD from page 4

wiith a purpose.

Project Will Enable Oversized Vehicles to Use Goldstar Bridge

rough-terrain cranes and rough-terrain forklifts to wrestle the material into place. From that point, workers used electric chainfalls for moving steel into place for final bolting onto the trusses. The team made extensive use of other heavy-duty equipment such as mag drills, rivet busters and impact guns.

Working over the Thames River means that workers are paying careful attention to environmental issues.

“We are using water soluble and biodegradable cutting oils for all of our metal machining,” said Thompson. “We are also trying to minimize our use of throw-away plastics. In addition, we have engineered environmental protections into our processes to protect the river from our construction operations.”

Aetna Bridge has placed considerable emphasis on worker safety for the project, including project safety officers and requiring safety officers for subcontractors. The safety team is using a CTDOT-sponsored plan to control motorists driving under the bridge. A safety boat patrols the water under the bridge when construction activity is under way above. Boaters are being alerted about the activity.

“One of the biggest challenges for the job has been the aggressive schedule for our work on the bridge,” said Thompson. “We were given very strict criteria for our work and the engineering we had to do. There was very little give in our schedule especially since we are the first phase of the project

with others following closely after our part.”

Another unexpected wrinkle in the schedule was the directive to avoid disturbing the nest of a peregrine falcon who made its home on the adjacent bridge.

“Ours is a painting and steel project, so this restriction was an enormous reduction in the time we could be working on the bridge.”

Thompson estimates that the work on the first phase of the project is 50 percent finished. He believes that when the project is completed it will have a sizeable impact on traffic in the state.

“This project will enable oversized vehicles and permitted trucks to now use the Goldstar Memorial Bridge. Before this they had to use a 17-mile detour. The work will increase the strength of the bridge and remove a restriction on a major artery for northbound traffic in Connecticut.”

(All photos courtesy of Aetna Bridge.)

A JLG RT lift is used to unload and stockpile repair plates.

Completed diagonal truss chord strengthening repair.

GOLDSTAR from page 12