public hearings next month for Memorial Bridge renovations

Motorists and pedestrians venturing between Kittery and Portsmouth last month were treated to a sneak peak at plans for the eventual renovation of the World War I Memorial Bridge.
Project manager Nancy Mayville said survey teams were out polling drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians for two days in August to gauge opinion on how best to keep traffic flowing when the bridge is renovated in 2008.

“(We wanted to) get a feel for where they’re going and what they’re doing, how they feel about waiting for traffic and things like that,” she said.

Respondents were asked whether they would prefer to see the bridge closed completely during renovations or to see one lane open for traffic. According to Mayville, closing the bridge to traffic will speed up the renovation process. However, that option could hamper commuters and businesses in downtown Kittery that rely on through-traffic. It will take between two and three years to finish renovating the bridge, she said. Mayville said results of the survey are still being compiled.

A lot of work needs to be done on the 82-year-old structure. Mayville said the DOT is still assessing how much deterioration there is on the beams and trusses, and portions need to be repainted. In addition, Mayville said planners are considering changing the bridge’s deck from an open-air grid to a paved deck. The equipment that operates the bridge’s liftspan will also be replaced, she said.

Drika Overton, owner of SPACE, a performing arts center in Kittery, said the project will affect both downtown Kittery and downtown Portsmouth.

“There are two other bridges and hopefully people will get accustomed to traveling a different way,” she said. “(But) I think people from Portsmouth still have a hard time coming over to Kittery as it is.” Among the businesses in Kittery Foreside and on Route 1 that might be affected are restaurants, markets and retail shops.

The cost of renovating the bridge is about $30 million, to be split between Maine and New Hampshire. Mayville said public meetings about the project should start either at the end of October or the beginning of November. There are no plans to devote a Web site to the project, Mayville said. She expects concerns about pedestrian and bicycle pathways on the bridges to come up during the meetings.

“We very much recognize the bridge is a bicycle corridor for folks,” she said. “There’s a very active bicycling community in Portsmouth and the Seacoast and we need to talk through on what the options might be.”

Meanwhile, as Mayville and other members of the Memorial Bridge project start to collect data, the state’s effort to renovate the Little Bay Bridges along the Spaulding Turnpike is in the middle of the design phase.

That project, known as the Newington-Dover project, will increase traffic capacity on the cramped section of the Spaulding between Newington and the Dover tollbooths. More than 70,000 cars cross the bridge there each day, according to a study done by the DOT.

Project members have been holding public meetings in Dover and Newington during the last year to discuss the various alternatives proposed to relieve congestion along the bridges. The alternatives include plans to expand the Little Bay Bridges to either three or four lanes each, as well as the possibility of turning the historic General Sullivan Bridge into a pedestrian and bicycle walkway. The General Sullivan sits alongside the Little Bay Bridges.

Project manager Christopher Waszczuk said that the project’s advisory task force has narrowed down the alternatives and should have a preferred plan in place by the end of October. The task force will then hold a public hearing on the project next spring to solicit formal comments on the layout, design and environmental impact of the project, he said. Construction is expected to begin sometime in 2008.

According to Waszczuk, some people are concerned about the “visual effect” of having two four-lane bridges across the bay. However, according to modeling done by project members, Waszczuk said that having only six total lanes for traffic may not be enough to meet future demands.

“The modeling … shows that in about 15 years or so, you’ll run into the same situations you have today, which is congestion, back-up at the bridges (and) inadequate facilities for merging and weaving,” he said.

According to Waszczuk, there’s been a lot of interest from the public in preserving some sort of pedestrian and bicycle connection across the bay. Tied to that is the fate of the General Sullivan, currently used as a pedestrian pathway. The U.S. Coast Guard has asked that the 71-year-old bridge be taken down, as vehicles no longer use it. Waszczuk said public opinion is “somewhat split” on the fate of the bridge. If the General Sullivan remains, it would cost an estimated $20 million to rehabilitate it.

“I would say that maybe a little more folks have advocated for its preservation because it is a landmark,” he said. “I think some of the others that have advocated for its removal have looked at the sheer coast of rehabilitating it.”

The Newington-Dover advisory task force’s next public meeting is Oct. 26 at the Newington Town Hall. The Sept. 28 meeting listed on the Web site has been postponed. For more information, visit www.newington-dover.com.