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“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your New england states connection • rachel slavid 1-800-225-8448 • kent Hogeboom 1-800-988-1203
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After Much Debate, Memorial Bridge Project on ‘Fast Track to Completion’ By Jay adams CEG CORRESPONDENT
Photo courtesy of Dennis McIntire, Rye, N.H.
South span just removed from position.
In a sepia-toned, grainy silent movie, five-year-old Eileen Dondero (later Foley), a pixie with scissors, cuts the ceremonially wide ribbon and two stately governors — Fred H. Brown of New Hampshire and Percival P. Baxter of Maine — shake hands on the brand- new bridge that spanned the Piscataqua River to connect their two states. That historic August 1923 day on the new World War Memorial Bridge remained with the young girl who later served as Mayor of Portsmouth, N.H. for eight terms. Precious to Eileen Foley, the bridge was just as special to the residents of her town on the south side and the residents of Kittery, Maine, up river, 1,000 ft. of steel away. Fast forward nine decades. From that day until July 27, 2011, people could walk or bike or drive from state to state across Route 1, carried over the Piscataqua. Then, owing to the toll taken by 88 years in a marine environment, Maine and New Hampshire Department of Transportation officials shut the bridge to vehicles. On January 9, 2012, the bridge was permanently shut down so it could be demolished and replaced by a new bridge. A month later, the bridge’s center lift span, consisting of some 2 million pounds of well-worn steel, was removed from its supports and lowered onto a barge to be taken away to a Boston-area scrap yard. For several years, locals had argued vehemently to have the bridge repaired, not replaced. They wanted the original span to remain, improved. But with escalating maintenance costs reaching the million-dollar mark annually, officials, commuters, pedestrians and bicyclists from both states of the river agreed that a new Memorial Bridge was needed. By summer 2013 they will have one.
Challenges Overcome Enter Archer Western Contractors of Canton, Mass., and welcome to the Memorial Bridge Project, a $90 million enterprise on the fast track to completion. Formidable economic, calendar and environmental challenges have been overcome. First, Archer Western had to win a competitive bid process, which they did in part by submitting a proposal to do the work months ahead of what would be considered the usual schedule for a project of this magnitude. Then, add working over a river with one of the biggest tide sets in North America, in a very crowded and historic setting with two million pounds of steel and concrete to remove. “The biggest challenge has been the foundation construction, the piers,” said Senior Project Manager Steve DelGrosso. “The river here is pretty tough to work on. The strong current and the tides are very difficult to deal with. You need experienced personnel and the correct marine equipment to deal with this environment, especially on our tight schedule.” Archer Western was selected through a public bidding process for three salient reasons, said DelGrosso: see BriDge page 4