PROSPECT (AP) – Construction crews worked around the clock to create a foundation for the $75 million replacement for the Waldo-Hancock Bridge.

The work included 30 hours of non-stop pouring of concrete.

Cianbro Corp. scheduled the arrival of 330 truckloads of concrete at five-minute intervals ending around noon Friday.

“This is the first big pour of the job. The crews are excited,” said Archie Wheaton, a project superintendent.

The pouring was designed to create a foundation strong enough to support a 42-story tower roughly the size of thee Washington Monument.

The new bridge, projected to open in July 2005, will have two towers rising from the banks of the Penobscot River and a roadway held up by steel cables.

It is only the second cable-stayed bridge to be built in New England.

, making it a rare engineering feat for those working on it.

The first is the new Zakimm Bridge, erected as part of the Big Dig in Boston.

The new bridge is an emergency project. The old bridge was being restored last summer when engineers found major problems in its two suspension cables. They quickly put a weight limit on the span, and later determined that building a new bridge was the only long-term option.

AP-ES-04-16-04 0218EDT