“State DOTs are overwhelmingly focused on innovative solutions to address the transportation issues of today and tomorrow, meeting challenges involving climate change, equity, resiliency, and safety,” said Jim Tymon, Executive Director of AASHTO. “The America’s Transportation Awards program shows just how they’re doing that. Whether on foot, in a vehicle, on two wheels, or by rail or transit, state DOTs are continuing to advance a safe, multimodal transportation system.”
Eighteen projects in the Northeast Association of State Transportation Officials (NASTO) region were nominated by seven states and the District of Columbia for this year’s competition. The following two projects in the New England Construction area were winners of the regional America’s Transportation Awards.
Prior to the completion of the project, Gardiner had aging pedestrian corridors, bridges in need of replacement, outdated or absent safety features, a lack of ADA-compliant pathways, and a shortage of multimodal corridors.
To increase the connectivity and pedestrian accessibility of the community while reducing the total impact to the city, MaineDOT combined several smaller projects into one $12.5-million package. The projects included the construction of two highway bridges, a connecting roadway, two intersections, numerous small sidewalk and crosswalk improvements, and a trail extension that also included a pedestrian bridge.
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“The benefit to the community is that they had a lot of infrastructure upgraded and placed in a short period of time,” said Wayne Frankhauser, Bridge Program Manager. “It certainly gave the town a great opportunity to work with us and plan the project and plan what the bridges would look like, what the projects would look like, what the traffic impacts would be, what the timing would be. So it was a really great opportunity from that standpoint that we were able to wrap all of those different components and parts and pieces for a major project.”
The 75-foot-long, single-span bridge was the first in the nation to use fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) tub-girders. These composite girders are a lightweight, sustainable, low-cost alternative that were easier for MaineDOT to fabricate, ship, install, and maintain over time.
The composite girders — developed at the University of Maine and manufactured by Advanced Infrastructure Technologies (AIT) Bridges — weigh as little as a quarter of the weight of steel girders. They are so lightweight that the contractor for the $9-million project could pre-assemble modules consisting of two girders with all utilities and attachments, that could then be lifted into place in one pick using smaller equipment.
“This was a good partnership between MaineDOT and the University of Maine and AIT Bridges,” Frankhauser said. “We came together to test and design and manufacture the composite girders. … This is the kind of long-term, almost zero maintenance structure that we’ve strived for for a long time.”
