Above, a rendering of the new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, courtesy of Maine DOT
Officials from Maine and New Hampshire marked the beginning of construction of the new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge with a kick-off event at the Kittery Community Center on Monday, Jan. 5. Maine Gov. Paul LePage and New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan were joined by Sens. Susan Collins and Jeanne Shaheen, the commissioners of the states’ respective Departments of Transportation, and the acting administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, as they celebrated the start of the $170 million project that will replace the truss lift bridge.
“The new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge will enhance quality of life for the residents of both states, promote economic development and enhance national security,” Hassan said during her remarks. She pointed to the bridge’s dual role in carrying road traffic between Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine, via the Route 1 Bypass and acting as a railway link to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which uses the bridge’s rail tracks to transport nuclear materials out of the facility.
N.H. Gov. Maggie Hassan
The joint project between the states “underscores just how critical the bridge is to the shared economy and cultural prosperity” of Maine and New Hampshire, Hassan said. The $170 million project is partially funded by a $25 million federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant.
“Without this investment, the bridge would likely have closed by 2020,” she said.
LePage called the new bridge “a good bridge built at a great price,” and quipped that Cianbro, the Pittsfield, Maine-based contractor overseeing construction “must have gone to Marden’s.”
While LePage and other officials focused on the new bridge, they also spoke in general about the need to fix aging infrastructure in both states. This will be the second of the three bridges connecting New Hampshire and Maine to be replaced. The Memorial Bridge was replaced and re-opened in 2013. “It’s great that we’ve finally come to grips with the deficiencies in the bridges in our state and are beginning to fix them,” LePage said.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage
Sen. Susan Collins, the newly appointed chair of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee, said her “highest priority is further strengthening the nation’s transportation infrastructure.”
Following the speeches, officials from both states and other attendees signed a metal girder that will be part of the new bridge.
Construction on the bridge begins this month and is expected to be complete in 2018. The bridge will be closed for six to nine months in 2016 as crews complete the span to Kittery and is expected to re-open to traffic in late 2017. Project updates can be found at maine.gov/mdot/sml. — Larry Clow
Laura Pantelakos signs a girder that will be part of the new bridge.