AASHTO Journal, 9 August 2013
Officials from the New Hampshire and Maine Departments of Transportation joined members of the community this week to mark the opening the new Memorial Bridge, which connects Portsmouth, N.H. to Kittery, Maine over the Piscataqua River.
The original Memorial Bridge was built in 1922 and had experienced deterioration over time, prompting NHDOT and MaineDOT to occasionally call for emergency closures and weight limits in recent years. In July 2011, the DOTs permanently closed the bridge to traffic (and to pedestrians and bicyclists in January 2012) due to the growing number of issues over the entire bridge. Knowing the importance of the bridge, which serves more than 12,000 vehicles each day, NHDOT and MaineDOT got to work on the $81.4 million new bridge in December 2011 with the desire to have it open during the summer of 2013.
On Thursday, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held to mark the opening of the bridge to vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic. Eileen Foley, who cut the ribbon on the original Memorial Bridge in 1923, again opened the bridge by cutting the ribbon at the ceremony.
“Working with our partners in New Hampshire, both DOTs worked tirelessly to deliver a state of the art bridge that the communities of Portsmouth and Kittery can be proud of,” said MaineDOT Commissioner David Bernhardt. “In addition, cooperation at the federal level was crucial to ensure the TIGER Grant portion of the funding was in place. When states and the federal government work toward the same goal, the citizens benefit greatly from new and improved infrastructure.”
The project received $20 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant funding to assist in its construction, along with additional investment from the federal government.
Some additional work will be done on the bridge through November 2013, including the installation of memorial plaques, system operation adjustments, and the completion of Memorial Park. Additional information on the Memorial Bridge project is available at MemorialBridgeProject.com.
