Construction of the replacement of the Neil R. Underwood Memorial Bridge across the inlet of Hampton Harbor that spans Route 1A from Hampton to Seabrook, N.H., began in May.
SPS New England of Salisbury, Mass., is the lead contractor after offering a low bid of $107.5 million.
Initial Phase of Vt.’s
The long-planned project will be paid with 80 percent federal funds with the state’s 20 percent match coming from turnpike toll credits, according to Jennifer Reczek, a New Hampshire Department of Transportation bridge engineer.
The bascule bridge was built in 1949 and replaced a wooden bridge originally constructed for trollies and cars, known as the “Mile-Long Bridge,” according to NHDOT. It has been rehabilitated multiple times, in 1963, 1978, 1983,
Champlain Parkway
Finally Opens, Second Portion to Soon Begin
The first phase of the long-planned Champlain Parkway in Burlington, Vt., is finally open, and construction on the remaining section of the road project is slated to begin later this fall, VTDigger reported.
On Aug. 20, officials representing the city, state and federal governments cut the ribbon on the middle segment of the Champlain Parkway, an accomplishment decades in the making and first envisioned for the area in 1965.
The two-lane, 25 mi.-per-hour street connects Home and Lakeside avenues and features shared-use pedestrian paths,
thousands of feet of new water and sewer lines for the area, and a stormwater retention pond that will absorb sediment being discharged into Lake Champlain.
Prior to the ribbon-cutting — and flipping the switch for traffic lights at the Flynn Avenue and Champlain Parkway intersection — local officials touted the project as key to furthering housing and business development in Burlington’s South End and along the Pine Street corridor, while alleviating truck traffic near Champlain Elementary School.
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Amtrak, Partners Break Ground On New Conn. River Bridge
Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner joined U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, Representative Joe Courtney, Connecticut Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, and other state and local officials to celebrate the start of construction for Amtrak’s new Connecticut River Bridge between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, Conn.
The existing Connecticut River Bridge, which opens for maritime traffic several times a day in peak boating season, was completed in 1907 and serves more than 50 daily Amtrak Northeast regional and Acela trains; CTrail Shore Line East commuter service trains; and freight trains. The aging bridge’s failure to open and close consistently can result in cascading delays to rail and maritime traffic.
The modern, more resilient, moveable bridge now being constructed by Amtrak will feature a trunnion bascule span design with modern track, signal, catenary, power, communication and other supporting rail infrastructure. It will support a maximum train operating speed of 70 mph, a 55 percent increase from today’s maximum speed of 45 mph. Maritime navigation and safety also will improve due to the increased vertical clearance of the new bridge compared to the existing bridge.
This investment will ensure continued
The aging bridge’s failure to open and close consistently can result in cascading delays to rail and maritime traffic.
Connecticut River Bridge with a safer, more reliable structure,” said Trottenberg. “This bridge is a critical point for freight and passenger rail and maritime traffic along the Northeast, and the new bridge will deliver the faster, more reliable service Americans deserve.”
connectivity along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) — America’s busiest passenger rail corridor — while enabling plans to expand intercity passenger rail service in the region and across the nation.
Earlier, Amtrak awarded a construction contract for the new bridge and held a preconstruction public meeting to educate community members about the upcoming work. Rail traffic will remain in service throughout the project, which is expected to conclude by 2031.
This $1.3 billion project is supported by a $826.64 million Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), made possible by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The remaining portion will be funded by Amtrak and the State of Connecticut.
“Amtrak is thrilled to join our partners to
break ground on the new Connecticut River Bridge, a project decades in the making,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “When completed, this modern bridge will improve the customer experience by eliminating delays, providing faster journeys and modernizing another critical infrastructure asset in Connecticut that benefits the entire Northeast Corridor. Today’s milestone would not be possible without funding from the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act and continued support from the Biden-Harris Administration along with Connecticut’s champions of rail in Governor Lamont, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Murphy, Congressman Courtney, Commissioner Eucalitto and so many others.”
“Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration — and the largest investment in passenger rail since Amtrak was founded — we’re replacing the century-old
“The Northeast Corridor is the busiest rail line in the nation, and improvements here mean more jobs, continued economic growth, and improved quality of life,” said Lamont. The Connecticut River Bridge is more than 100 years old, and this major modernization project will ensure that trains can operate with higher speeds and fewer disruptions well into the future. President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law continues delivering for Connecticut and the entire region.”
“Today marks the beginning of faster rail travel for commuters and other rail passengers,” said Blumenthal. “The Connecticut River Bridge is in desperate need of upgrades, and I am thrilled that work is under way to replace it. I am proud Bipartisan Infrastructure Law dollars are at work improving aging infrastructure in Connecticut, and I will continue fighting to deliver more of this critical funding to our state.”
“The Connecticut River Bridge is one of the most critical sections of northeast rail corridor, but its aging infrastructure has led
BRIDGE page 18
Amtrak photo Amtrak and its partners celebrate the ground breaking of the new Connecticut River Bridge.
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The long-planned project will be paid with 80 percent federal funds with the state’s 20 percent match coming from turnpike toll credits.
from page 1
1990, 2002 and 2010. Emergency repairs to the bascule span mechanical were undertaken in 2018.
According to SPS New England, the project will replace the State Red List Neil R. Underwood Bridge that carries NH 1A (Ocean Boulevard) over the Hampton River at the inlet to Hampton Harbor. The project limit begins on NH 1A in the town of Seabrook approximately 1,500 ft. south of the proposed bridge and continues northerly on NH 1A 3,900 ft. across the bridge to a point approximately 100 ft. south of the intersection with Ashworth Avenue in the town of Hampton. The existing bridge is 1,193 ft. between abutments and consists of 13-spans with a moveable single-leaf bascule span in the center at the navigational channel. The bridge width is 26 ft. between curbs. The 150-ft.-wide federal navigational channel is reduced to 40 ft. as it passes beneath the movable bridge span.
“The proposed bridge will be a fixed high-level steel girder structure on a new horizontally curved alignment west of the existing bridge. The bridge will consist of seven spans and have a length of 1,300 feet between abutments. The bridge width will be 38 feet between two curbs [two 11-foot travel lanes and 8-foot shoulders] and include two 6-foot sidewalks with overlooks at Piers 2 and 5. The bridge will accommodate the full 150-foot-wide channel with a vertical clearance of approximately 48 feet. The improvements to the navigational channel will provide clearance for all regular waterway users, including U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging equipment that is currently too large to transit the existing bridge for the harbor channel to the west,” SPS New England said.
“Approach roadway improvements consist of full box reconstruction of NH 1A. A pedestrian walkway will be constructed in front of the abutment beneath Span 7 of the bridge that will connect Hampton Beach State Park to the Hampton State Pier property. The existing bridge will be demolished upon the completion of the proposed bridge replacement work.”
Dennis Switzer, a contract administrator of NHDOT, said the job started in May with utility relocation. Since then, workers have put in a temporary bulkhead for bridge access and an abutment cofferdam.
The Aquarion Water Co., Hampton, N.H., is assisting with the project. Amanda Keyes, the company’s manager of capital delivery, said, “Aquarion has two 4-inch water mains that currently lay under the Hampton Harbor that will be impacted by the work and removed from service as part of the bridge construction. Aquarion will be constructing a new 12inch water main on the underside of the proposed bridge.
“During the duration of the project, which is anticipated to take three years, the Sun Valley neighborhood of Hampton, which is located just south of the bridge will receive drinking water through an interconnection with the Seabrook Water Department.”
The project will replace the State Red List Neil R. Underwood Bridge that carries NH 1A (Ocean Boulevard) over the Hampton River at the inlet to Hampton Harbor.
The construction equipment being used by SPS New England in the project includes a Cat 328 hydraulic excavator, a Grove GRT 8100 all-terrain crane and a rubber tire excavator, according to Richard Arcand, a NHDOT spokesperson.
The key challenge of construction on the Hampton Seabrook bridge project, according to the SPS New England post, is water work restrictions.
“Water work is limited to time of year restrictions or working within cofferdams, which requires critical work to be potentially performed during non-ideal weather conditions.”
(All photos courtesy of NHDOT.)
The construction equipment being used by SPS New England in the project includes a Cat 328 hydraulic excavator.
A small crane was used to assemble a crawler crane.
HARBOR
Champlain Parkway’s Second Phase Could Wrap Up in 2026
CHAMPLAIN from page 1
Once the parkway is completely built, according to VTDigger, the new road will direct cars from Interstate 189 in South Burlington through the larger city’s South End, and help reduce traffic flows northbound on Pine Street, Shelburne Road and St. Paul Street. The route briefly joins Lakeside Avenue before connecting northbound on Pine Street toward Burlington’s downtown.
Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak called the Champlain Parkway a “generational” project, one that was “first envisioned before many of us were even born.”
The 2.8-mi.-long road was initially envisioned 58 years ago as a four-lane highway called the “Burlington Beltline,” and would have taken I-189 traffic along the city’s waterfront and past downtown.
But that plan was eventually scrapped, and in recent years, the project was redesigned to be more pedestrian friendly and decrease the volume of traffic to move away from a “reliance on carbon-based, single-user car transportation,” MulvaneyStanak told VTDigger.
Her colleague, City Council President Ben Traverse, said that the completion of the middle section — the first of two phases of construction for the full roadway — represents a “huge leap forward in finally living up to the parkway promise to former, current and future Burlingtonians.”
“For many years, this project has taken up significant bandwidth from our hardworking engineering staff, and as we near its completion, we will see more capacity to pursue new and forward-looking projects for our community,” said Mulvaney-Stanak, who added the city “will take the lessons learned from this project to improve community engagement and advance infrastructure projects that make Burlington a walkable, bikeable, and climate-resilient community.”
While the Burlington Parkway’s advancement was celebrated in August, city officials acknowledged that the project as a whole still has a long way to go before it is finished.
Roadway and pedestrian improvements are still under way north of the completed tract on Pine Street, near the intersections of Howard and Kilburn streets and Marble Avenue. That work is expected to be completed in this fall.
The second phase of the project will complete the parkway’s southern portion by connecting I-189 to Home Avenue — a section of the highway that was partly built in 1981
but has since sat dormant — while also making pedestrian and roadway improvements to Pine Street between Kilburn and Main streets.
The construction contract for the second and final phase was approved by the Burlington City Council during its meeting in mid-August. That work is expected to begin in late September or early October with a projected completion by 2026, Mulvaney-Stanak said.
Future Plans Include New Railyard/Road Bypass
A separate project in Burlington, the Railyard Enterprise Project, would add a new bypass road over a railyard to connect Pine and Battery streets. City officials have said previously that the railyard work will move traffic away from the neighborhood around Maple and King streets, a racially diverse area of the city.
In speaking with VTDigger, Chapin Spencer, director of the Burlington Department of Public Works, noted that the railyard bypass is currently in its preliminary engineering phase and will be for the next six to nine months. He estimated that the effort is three years away from construction, depending on how the project’s right of way phase goes.
For now, the completion of the Champlain Parkway project’s first phase will open the doors to new potential business and housing development in the city’s South End, officials said.
Cheray MacFarland, the director of community and marketing of City Market, said the co-op “took a big risk” in moving to its second location on Flynn Avenue “with the promise in the background from the city that they would commit to this decades-long promise of the new corridor.”
“So, we’re so excited to see it finally happen,” she said.
Michele Boomhower, the director of policy, planning and intermodal development with the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), explained that the parkway construction builds off the recent successes of the Shelburne Street roundabout and the Amtrak rail line to Burlington.
“There are already proposed developments adjacent to the parkway, and the needs of the vibrant South End will shift over time,” she said. “VTrans will work to support and adapt to these transportation system needs so the city can add more housing and businesses and increase the vitality along this corridor.”
GNS Begins Work On Recirculating Aquaculture System
Great Northern Salmon (GNS) has announced it is commencing pre-construction work in preparation for its new salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Millinocket, Maine.
The company — formerly known as Katahdin Salmon — is a project of Xcelerate Aqua and is aiming to build a 10,000-metric-ton salmon RAS in two phases starting in 2025, with its first phase of construction capable of 5,000 metric tons, which can later be expanded, according to a report from Maine Public Radio on Sept. 10.
GNS plans to build the facility on the site of the former Great Northern Paper Co. mill, as part of the One North industrial park.
The builder is PC Construction in Portland, Maine.
The pre-construction work will take 10 months and will be helped by funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), the Northern Borders Regional Commission (NBRC), the Eastern Maine Development Corporation (EMDC), and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“The work entails decanting the water and
removing settlement materials in the lagoon, [which is] the location of our future landbased RAS salmon farm,” said Marianne Naess, the seafood processor’s CEO. “Our close collaboration with the site owner and economic development partner, Our Katahdin, has made it possible to start this work on schedule and progress with the development of our RAS facility.”
The process will accelerate the project’s construction time and also eliminate risks associated with excavation and blasting, GNS said. By building on top of the former paper mill’s settlement lagoons, the new GNS facility will effectively remediate the site.
Pre-construction activities also will involve in-situ handling of the sludge deposits.
The federal and state contributions reduce the overall capital expenditures for GNS and enable the company to start primary construction with a fully prepared and excavated site, reducing the construction cost and timeline by more than six months.
Geotechnical work at the salmon RAS site also has confirmed the glacial till substrate will support the facility’s weight.
“Remediation and reuse of the former settlement lagoons on the One North industrial
campus is an important milestone for GNS and the local community,” One North’s Director of Mill Site Development Steve Sanders told Maine Public Radio. “It is a clear, tangible signal to our partners and supporters that this project is a step toward new investment and renewed industry in our region.”
GNS said it is now working on closing a Series A fundraising round, and the company will start design, scheduling and final cost estimates on the facility in the coming weeks, noted Portland’s SeafoodSource news site.
Much Effort Went Into New Salmon RAS Project
GNS announced in May that it had secured all the critical permits it would need to construct its salmon RAS, including final discharge permits, which were obtained with no challenges.
At the same time, the EPA awarded a $5 million grant to the seafood producer to remediate and prepare the project site.
GNS said that the grant went to its development partner, Our Katahdin, for the site remediation. Additionally, $1 million in funding from the Maine DECD was awarded for the same purpose.
Sean DeWitt, president of Our Katahdin, noted in a GNS news release last spring that the monies “will play a crucial role in remediating 26 acres of the former mill site’s wastewater lagoon. This EPA-funded project will clear the way for Great Northern Salmon’s aquaculture project, scheduled to begin construction in 2025.
“We are grateful for the support of the EPA, our federal delegation, and the many local and state organizations that have supported the clean-up and infrastructure improvements to the former mill site,” he added. “These investments are laying the foundation for significant job creation and a better economic future for the Katahdin
region.”
Cumberland, Maine-based Sevee & Maher Engineers is in charge of managing the project.
After a thorough review of options for RAS design vendors, GNS selected Nofitech, a Norwegian firm that specializes in designing RAS facilities, to help create its Millinocket production site.
Dean Guest, GNS’s head of RAS technology, noted that his experienced production team has “a clear vision” for its future RAS design and functionality, and Nofitech´s approach was seen as the best fit technically, commercially, and culturally.
“It became clear as soon as we started exploring future collaboration that we see things the same way and that Nofitech has a design that is compatible with our bioplan,” he said. “Nofitech´s reputation for delivering on expectations for cost, performance, and schedule — proven through its repeat business with several customers — was also an important factor in the decision.”
GNS noted that the combination of compact designs and extensive use of standardized prefabricated units at the Millinocket RAS will provide a lower total cost than similar facilities.
“The compact patented structure provides short pipelines, less footprint, and is designed to prevent the accumulation of sediments,” according to a news release on its website. “Construction and design are developed for production with freshwater, and production in the most demanding environments with seawater.”
The Millinocket facility will be located on a 1,400-acre property that once belonged to the Great Northern Paper Co., which permanently shut down in 2008.
When the Millinocket Mill first opened in 1900, it was the world’s largest paper mill and, later, the first such plant to have an onsite hydro generation and distribution facility.
Damaged Covered Bridge in Maine to Close Until Spring
The Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) expects Babb’s Bridge, a 48year-old covered bridge between the towns of Gorham and Windham, to remain closed to vehicle traffic until the second quarter of 2025 after an overweight dump truck fell through the structure’s deck on Aug. 23.
Bridge engineers from MaineDOT inspected the structure on Aug. 26 and determined that some of the bridge beams were damaged as a result of the accident.
Repairs can be accomplished by crews from the state agency, but new lumber will need to be milled specifically to match the species and dimensions of the remaining lumber on the bridge. Procuring the materials is expected to take several months, meaning construction is unlikely to happen until weather the spring.
So far, MaineDOT does not have an estimated repair cost for the bridge.
Babb’s Bridge, which carries Covered Bridge Road over the Presumpscot River between Gorham and Windham, has a posted weight limit of three tons.
According to the Gorham Police Department, the dump truck was loaded with crushed gravel, which made the weight of the vehicle several times heavier than the structure’s posted weight limit. The truck entered the bridge from the Gorham side and fell through the first panel of the bridge deck into the river below.
The single-lane bridge is a state-owned structure that, on an average day, supports approximately 360 vehicles as they cross the river.
The original Babb’s Bridge was built in 1840 and was Maine’s oldest covered bridge until it was burned by vandals in 1973.
MaineDOT rebuilt an exact replica of the bridge using lumber milled in Gorham and historically authentic construction techniques. The wood replacement bridge opened in 1976 with stone abutments on either side of the river.
Transportation agency engineers inspect Babb’s Bridge at least every two years, with its last inspection occurring at the end of July.
The weight limit on the bridge was first posted at three tons in 1983 and has not changed since then, MaineDOT noted.
Maine Law School to Double Space With Portland Expansion
The still-new home to the University of Maine (UM) School of Law in Portland may soon expand to a newer home next door, and the process is already under way, Mainebiz reported Aug. 28.
The Maine Graduate & Professional Center — which houses the law school, the Maine Graduate School of Business and the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service — has leased nearly four floors of a five-story office building at 7
Custom House St., a spokesperson told Mainebiz.
The building adjoins 300 Fore St., which the University of Maine System (UMS) renovated at a cost of nearly $14 million and where the three UMS schools and other programs opened in January 2023 as the Maine Center.
So far, the center is using a single floor in the neighboring building after investing about $300,000 on new paint, carpet, furnishings and equipment.
But on Aug. 28, a UMS trustee committee unanimously approved spending $650,000 to draft plans and make other preparations for building out the rest of the new space. UMS already has about $8.5 million available for the actual expansion.
If the work goes as proposed, the Maine Center’s footprint in Portland’s Old Port area will more than double next year, from 63,000 sq. ft. on Fore Street to a total of 130,000 sq. ft.
In 2026, UMS would have the option to purchase the buildings for a total of $37 million, according to a presentation at the recent meeting of the trustees’ Finance, Facilities, and Technology Committee. That funding would come from a previous $55 million commitment by the Harold Alfond Foundation.
The goal of the expansion is to create a “world-class interdisciplinary graduate center
and innovation hub,” according to the presentation by Seth Goodall, executive director of the Maine Center and CEO of Maine Center Ventures.
The expanded center would support four functions, according to the presentation:
• Core interdisciplinary graduate degrees and programs, comprising the three schools and offerings from the University of Maine College of Engineering and Computing.
• Professional development and executive education, responding to the needs of Maine’s industries, its workforce and business leaders.
• Entrepreneurship and innovation, providing resources to advance research, development, product commercialization and economic development.
• Convening and knowledge-sharing, through hosting events, scholars, leaders and others to address Maine’s challenges.
Under the Maine Center’s plan, graduate education would remain mostly at Fore Street, while work related to business innovation would primarily take place at Custom House Street.
But neither building would be a silo. Currently, 300 Fore St. and 7 Custom House St. are connected by a joint stairwell, Mainebiz noted, and the Maine Center hopes to open up more access between the structures.
“We are striving to create one building, one hub,” Goodall told the trustees.
VTrans Talks Options to Replace Bridge Deck On Highway 16
On Aug. 22, officials in the small, northern Vermont town of Glover learned from the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) about its proposal to replace a bridge road deck that carries vehicle traffic along state Highway 16 through the Orleans County community.
The bridge across the Barton River, first built in 1956, is located between the town’s Red Sky Trading store and Bean Hill Road. Members of the Glover Selectboard were told the construction is currently projected to start around 2027-2028., the Newport Daily Express said Aug. 25.
Additionally, VTrans noted that it only expects the bridge to be closed for a maximum of 21 days, possibly less, and at least some of the work might be performed at night. Glover officials and residents, though, will be allowed to give input on the best timing for the closure.
The transportation agency is already working on a temporary pedestrian bridge, and plans call for cars and trucks to use an offsite detour. Due to highway interactions near the project site, VTrans noted that a one-lane bridge construction is not ideal, and a temporary bridge is not feasible.
VTrans, which owns the structure, estimates that the replacement cost of the structure is anticipated to be $2.7 million. The fed-
eral government will pay 80 percent of the project’s cost, and the state will pick up the remaining 20 percent.
The Daily Express viewed a VTrans PowerPoint presentation that noted the bridge deck is in fair condition, but with large delamination and deep spalling. In addition, the small structure’s railing is obsolete and needs to be upgraded to include a more modern bridge railing style. Improvements also are required at the nearby intersection of Vt. 16 and Bean Hill Road.
VTrans Explored Its Options Before Construction Decision Was Made
Laura Stone, a scoping engineer with VTrans, told the Newport news source that, typically, bridge decks like that found on the 68-year-old Glover bridge are designed to last about 40 to 50 years.
“It’s reached the end of its intended design life,” she said. “It’s time to do it. The deck is deteriorating. If this went on for another 10 years without having work done, we might start seeing deck popouts and [the need for] emergency repairs.”
“Deck popouts” would seem to be a fairly self-explanatory term, but Stone clarified that they occur when concrete pops out of a bridge deck, and, as a result, require the installation of
fortifying steel plates.
However, she stressed that VTrans inspectors regularly check the bridge, and Stone and her colleagues assured the Glover Selectboard that the bridge is safe. She added that the replacement project is currently in its early, definition stage.
“This is where we identify the environmental resources, the cultural resources surrounding the [bridge], and the constraints surrounding the structure,” Stone explained.
VTrans also evaluated project alternatives, she noted, the product of which is a scoping report.
“We have a recommended alternative. Part of the process is that we have a public participating piece, which is where we are now. We really want to build consensus towards our recommended alternative.”
The alternatives that the state agency studied included taking no action on the bridge, but based on the deterioration of the deck, VTrans quickly crossed that idea off its list.
Another considered option was making fixes to the deck where workers would remove and repair the deteriorating concrete, a lot of which would take place underneath the bridge. According to Stone, however, a big effort would be needed to try to prevent that from contaminating the Barton River below,
and the state would only get about a 15-year design life out of a deck repair.
The state also briefly considered a superstructure that would replace the deck and the beams, or a full replacement that would replace all bridge elements.
VTrans’ next steps in the project will be to consider and evaluate comments received at the Aug. 22 meeting in Glover. The department also will proceed with the recommended alternative unless they hear something that might make them reconsider, after which it will start developing conceptual plans to distribute to the town for comments.
Following the recent presentation, Glover Selectboard Member David Simmons told the Newport Daily Express that he was amazed VTrans could complete the bridge replacement effort in just three weeks. He also noted the importance of including a short-term pedestrian bridge.
Among the questions raised at the Selectboard meeting included the possibility of replacing the bridge deck during times of the year when traffic is light, such as right at the end of the school year, but VTrans and Glover officials noted that they had only a few days to decide. There also was talk about traffic visibility turning onto Vt. 16 from the town’s side roads, the newspaper reported.
THE DOER’S DREAM
Connecticut Set to Begin New $1.3B New Bridge Project
to disruptions, slower travel times, and delays, creating massive headaches for the thousands of commuters who travel across it,” said Murphy. “This project has been years in the making, and it is only happening because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Now, thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris, we are finally starting a project to improve reliability, reduce traffic, and make life easier for travelers and commuters in our state.”
“This project is a great example of collaboration between the private sector and the federal and state governments...”
“Ever since the determination was made in 2006 that the bridge was structurally deficient, my office has been leading federal efforts to support construction of a safer and faster rail line for passengers and freight. Importantly, even before the federal infrastructure law, which is funding the new bridge, became law, my office secured a commitment from Amtrak that the bridge would be built under a Project Labor Agreement that guarantees our local workforce will execute construction,” said Courtney. “This means Connecticut’s workers will benefit from the highest safety standards, good wages, and high quality job training.”
“I am thrilled to see the Connecticut River Bridge project begin this week,” said Connecticut State Senator Christine Cohen (District 12), Chair of the Transportation Committee. “This project is a great example of collaboration between the private sector and the federal and state governments to invest into public transportation in the Northeast Corridor. Once completed, this project will improve reliability, train speeds and connectivity in our region and I’m committed to continuing to work together with our partners to make our rails more accessible for riders across the region.”
“This bridge represents a great leap forward for our local public transportation,” said Connecticut State Senator and Deputy Majority Leader Marth Marx (District 20). “People can trust that their trains will arrive on time and get them where they need to go at a faster pace than ever before. Rail travel is a vital connection point in our community, as well as in New England and throughout the nation. I’m very pleased to see Amtrak making such admirable improvements to their services.”
“Rebuilding the Connecticut River Bridge is a transformational investment for the future of passenger rail service in the Northeast Corridor,” said Eucalitto. “With modern engineering and design, the new
bridge will accommodate growing ridership demand, faster and more reliable travel times, and stimulate the local and regional economy. Thank you to the FRA for investing in Connecticut through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. We look forward to working closely with our partners at Amtrak as this project moves forward.”
“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has enabled long overdue transportation upgrades like the Connecticut River Bridge Project along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor,” said Transportation Trades Department (AFL-CIO) President Greg Regan. “We’re proud that this project will utilize union workers, providing an economic boost to surrounding communities, and will improve service on America’s busiest passenger rail line.”
“Chalk up another win for America’s rail passengers from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said Rail Passengers Association President & CEO Jim Mathews.
“Thanks to the BIL’s historic levels of capital funding, passengers on Amtrak and commuter rail on the busy Northeast Corridor can look forward to traveling faster, more safely, and more reliably over the Connecticut River than we do today. Replacing this 117-year-old bridge is just another example of how the BIL is helping to reverse decades of underinvestment in vital infrastructure, and our Association applauds Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation for getting this vital project moving.”
