Rising from the river

It won’t be open for Labor Day weekend traffic, and it may not be open for Columbus Day weekend, but in about four months, the third bridge crossing the Piscataqua River should be restored.

The new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is about a month and a half behind the original Sept. 1 projected open date for vehicular traffic, and an updated open date has not been set. Right now, mid-October is the best estimate.

“When we get closer, we’ll have a better idea,” said Ron Taylor, the Maine Department of Transportation’s resident engineer overseeing the work by Maine-based Cianbro Corporation.

While the vehicle traffic opening is behind schedule, the project’s full completion date, June 1, 2018, is still on track, Taylor said. One of the challenges that pushed the complex project behind schedule was the weather this winter, especially the rain. While the precipitation this year has washed out the region’s drought conditions, it wasn’t conducive to setting the bridge segments because of the epoxy used to help seal them together, Taylor said.

Even if a bit behind schedule, the bridge continues to grow by the day. The estimated $170 million bridge project, a joint venture between the states of New Hampshire and Maine, which co-own the bridge, is its own bustling city on the Piscataqua River. Contractors are seemingly everywhere working on both sides of the river on many different aspects of the bridge at the same time. 

Some are working to install the vehicle and rail segments. About three-quarters of the vehicle segments on the Portsmouth side have been installed, with much work on the Kittery side to complete. Taylor said the few remaining vehicle segments are still being cast and should be complete by next week and then trucked to the construction site.

The new rail line, sans the rails, is almost complete on both sides; there are four remaining segments on the Kittery side to complete. Taylor said the rail line, which is used infrequently by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, is scheduled to open soon after the bridge is open to automobile traffic.

Many are working on different sections of the lift towers, which are nearly complete. One part missing from the four lift towers are the sheaves, the pulley wheels that will be installed atop each one that will run the cables that connect the lift span to the four one-million-pound counterweights inside each lift tower. Taylor said the sheaves are en route from Alabama on a barge.

Some tower workers are preparing the mechanical room that will drive the lift span. Others are preparing the reinforcing bar, or rebar, where concrete will soon be poured for the electrical room that will power the mechanical room and other aspects of the bridge. The span's electrical power comes from the Portsmouth side through the rail segments to the lift tower pier, Taylor said. From there, the power line runs underneath the river and to the Kittery tower pier to electrify that side of the bridge.

Other workers are preparing the tower control room on one of the lift towers from where the bridge lift will be operated. Still others are putting the final touches on assembling the new lift span, which has been assembled on a barge on the Portsmouth side that will be floated in late this summer. Based on the current estimate, the navigational channel around the bridge will be closed for approximately 10 days between Sept. 7-21, when the four-million pound lift span will be floated into its permanent home.

In August, a three-week project will begin on the Route 1 Bypass in Kittery that will close a section near the Long Bridge to fix some structural issues related to the old train tunnel that goes under the highway. The project will remove the train tunnel, which Taylor said will eliminate the need for future maintenance.

The MDOT keeps an updated bridge project blog with updates on construction and links to 24-hour cameras so people can follow the project. Find the blog at www.maine.gov/mdot/sml.

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