Crews are using a Grove YB5515 carrydeck crane, an Anderson HP35 Hydra Platform, a Caterpillar 336 excavator, a Caterpillar demolition hammer, a John Deere 75 and more.
Repair work on five bridges on Route 93 in Manchester and Hooksett, N.H., is under way, with three bridges to be completed this year and two in 2022.
R.S. Audley of Bow, N.H., is the lead contractor on the job, with a number of subcontractors providing assistance.
I-93 southbound over Route 3 Exit 9 in Hooksett is the first bridge that will be completed, followed by Mammoth Road over I-93 in Manchester and I-93 southbound over Stevens Pond in Manchester.
"Preservation improvements include pavement and membrane removal and replacement, full and partial deck repairs, expansion joint replacement, bridge rail and curbing repairs and abutment fascia and backwall repairs will be completed," said Richard Arcand, program specialist of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT).
Repairs are being done now because the bridges were built in the 1970s and require maintenance and preservation work, he added.
Each bridge has a phase one and phase two of the project, with separate phases for each side of the bridge. The same work will be done on each phase, said to Scott Stevens, project engineer of R.S. Audley.
"We started by taking the existing asphalt off the bridges, doing partial full-depth deck repairs and starting expansion joint replacements on all three bridges," Stevens said.
The bridges that will be done next year are I-93 southbound over Wellington Road Exit 8 and I-93 southbound viaduct over Stevens Pond in Manchester.
"We can't do all of them this year because of traffic control," Stevens said. "It's very congested and traffic wouldn't be able to enter the highway."
Southbound traffic will be reduced to two lanes at Exit 7 to allow construction crews to perform concrete work and install new expansion joints on the bridge over Stevens Pond, NHDOT said in a statement.
Stevens said his crews are using a Grove YB5515 carrydeck crane, an Anderson HP35 Hydra Platform, a Caterpillar 336 excavator, a Caterpillar demolition hammer, a John Deere 75 and more.
The materials needed for the job are concrete and asphalt bridge deck membrane, he added.
The bridgework R.S. Audley is doing is not complicated and Stevens called it "scratch and patch. We scratch it all out and patch back in new concrete."
When asked if R.S. Audley has had any problems with the job, Stevens said, "Repair projects are notoriously unusual, so you don't know what you'll get. It's continual as you start moving. End dams may be in as good shape as you hope they are, so you're adapting on a daily basis."
The subcontractors R.S. Audley is working with include Coleman Concrete, Conway, N.H.; Barker Steel, Canaan, N.H.; Merrimac Sheet Metal, Concord, N.H.; and AD Rossi, Danville, Vt.
Barker Steel is a rebar supplier, Merrimac Sheet Metal has provided expansion joints and AD Rossi has supplied bridge deck membrane, according to Stevens.
Other subcontractors on the job are Continental Paving, Londenderry, N.H.; Moore Concrete Cutting, Brentwood, N.H.; CWS Fence and Guardrail Co., Andover, N.H. and Nicom Coatings Corp., Barre, Vt., according to NHDOT.
The cost of the job is $8.4 million and the project is 80 percent federally funded, Arcand said.
R.S. Audley won the job as the most successful qualified bidder in a competitive bid process, he added.
The job, which began February 2021, should be completed in the fall of 2022. CEG
Today's top stories
