Work on the Hampden Bridge Bundle, a project that involves rebuilding eight bridges and rehabilitating a ninth bridge along a 4-mi. stretch of I-95 in Hampden, Maine, is proceeding, with Cianbro of Pittsfield, Maine, the lead contractor.
Work on the Hampden Bridge Bundle, a project that involves rebuilding eight bridges and rehabilitating a ninth bridge along a 4-mi. stretch of I-95 in Hampden, Maine, is proceeding, with Cianbro of Pittsfield, Maine, the lead contractor.
The eight bridge replacements are happening on the northbound and southbound sides of the interstate at four sites between Exits 174 and 180. Three of these bridge pairs cross the Souadobscook Stream and one pair crosses Emerson Mill Road and the Central Maine & Quebec Railway. The one bridge rehabilitation is happening at the Exit 180 off-ramp on Cold Brook Road over I-95.
The work started in March 2020, when R.F. Jordan of Ellsworth, Maine, did all the associated earthwork for the permanent and temporary bridges.
"We have installed close to 200,000 cubic yards of aggregates to the temporary diversions on the northbound bridges alone," said Barbara Jordan, an executive at the company.
The company used Volvo excavators, a Cat and Komatsu dozers, Ingersoll and Volvo rollers and Cat 120M grader on the project. The grader and dozer are equipped with Topcon 3DMC Machine Control. The company also has used a Level-Best Box Blade with Topcon 3DMC Machine Control and excavators with Topcon 3DMC Indicate systems.
"The Hampden Bridges team is currently working on three southbound stream bridges and finishing up the northbound Emerson Mill Road bridge," said Andrea Pelletier, communications manager of Cianbro.
"We have recently completed and swapped traffic on to the three northbound stream bridges. We then swapped southbound traffic on to the temporary diversions and completed demolition of the old stream bridges. We're in the process of driving H-Pile for the new permanent abutments with a new Link-Belt 228 HSL 130-ton lattice boom crawler crane. We've begun installing formwork and rebar at our southbound stream bridge abutments and will be placing concrete at each of those over the next few weeks.
We will also finish up on the northbound Emerson Mill Road bridge in the coming weeks and will swap traffic on to this bridge at the end of September.
"We've been using the new Link-Belt crane along with an APE D30 diesel hammer for driving H-pile," she added. "We've also been using an 80-ton rough-terrain hydraulic crane and a 30-ton boom truck for various activities around the job site."
Two of the other subcontractors on the job are H.B. Fleming of South Portland, Maine, that is performing pile work to support the bridges, and Eurovia-Northeast Paving/Bangor, Maine, which is performing pavement work.
The Hampden bridges are approximately 60 years old and approaching the end of their useful lives. The new structures will include non-corrosive materials to reduce future maintenance needs and the bridges over the Souadabscook Stream will be single-span structures to eliminate the need for piers in the water, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.
Temporary diversion roadways and bridges will be constructed in the median of I-95 to maintain two travel lanes in each direction throughout the majority of this project, according to Maine DOT. After the diversions have been constructed, the northbound traffic will be moved to the median roadway while the northbound bridges are under construction. Once the new northbound bridges are complete, northbound traffic will move onto the new bridges, and southbound traffic will move to the median roadway while construction occurs on the southbound bridges. Once the southbound bridges are complete, southbound traffic will move onto the new bridges, and removal of the median roadways and bridges will begin.
Median work started in February 2020 and continued through the rest of the year. Most of the northbound bridge work will be completed in 2021, and southbound bridge work will be completed in 2022. Construction will be complete by November 2022.
Federal funds are covering 88 percent of the cost of the $44.8 million project, with state funds covering the remainder, according to Maine DOT spokesperson Paul Merrill. CEG
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