Sarah Long Bridge

The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, carrying US Route 1 over the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine, was built in 1940. Deemed structurally deficient in 2016, Cianbro was chosen to build its replacement, and Cutting Technologies was asked to help them remove the original bridge, as well as modify sections of the new construction.

CTI saw cut and removed the bridge piers and foundations, as well as the rampways and piers leading to the bridge. Each block was surveyed, laid out and sectioned to minimize the number of cuts, but to keep the picks within the crane’s lifting capacity, ensuring safe removal at maximum speed.

For rigging, CTI core drilled 6” access holes into the blocks and used Kevlar chokers to remove sections weighing as much as 30 tons.

At the top of each of the new bridge’s four towers, 20’-diameter, 100-ton counterweight sheaves were planned to be moved into place. However, design flaws in the precast concrete towers required they be modified to accept the sheaves’ mountings. At each location, CTI saw cut three blocks – one keystone section with two flanking pieces – that were removed in picks weighing as much as 15 tons.

This project has been featured in ENR Magazine & Roads and Bridges.