VERONA ISLAND – When it was opened to traffic in 1931, the Waldo-Hancock Bridge arching gracefully over Maine’s Penobscot River was hailed as the world’s most beautiful steel bridge built for less than $1 million.
Now reaching the end of its useful life, the green two-lane suspension bridge that’s been familiar to generations of tourists who motored along coastal U.S. Route 1 to Down East destinations is being replaced by a new span, which has a few unique qualities itself.
The still-unnamed $84 million replacement will be the only bridge in the United States that will have a public observatory at the top of a supporting tower, project officials say. The only other bridge that does so is in Taiwan.
Maine’s first cable-stay style bridge is also rising with unusual speed, in contrast to other major projects – Boston’s Big Dig is an example – that are plagued by cost overruns, delays and lawsuits. The Maine project could turn out to span 3 years from the decision to build to the first car crossing.
“Normally a bridge of this scope would take a decade,” said Carol Morris, the Maine Department of Transportation’s project spokeswoman.
And one more thing sets the new bridge aside: It may turn out to be the only one anywhere with supporting pylons that look like the Washington Monument, a design that was not unintentional. At 440 feet, the towers will be 115 feet shorter than the noted obelisk.
The special attention to the bridge’s design has a lot to do with the warm sentiments local residents have developed over the years for an integral part of the local skyline, said Morris, who calls the bridge “very much a part of the community.”
“The fondness the people have for the old Waldo-Hancock Bridge is enormous,” she said.
Ninety-two-year-old Albert Richard, who worked on the Waldo-Hancock Bridge as an 18-year-old, said it was the biggest project of several he worked on. But Richard, who lives in an assisted living center in Cape-Pele, New Brunswick, is philosophical about plans to demolish it.
“It probably had its use,” said Richard, who acknowledged that the replacement will be stronger. “Life has to go on.”
During a series of public sessions, residents of local communities said they hoped the design would blend in with the historic look of the granite fortress Fort Knox, which was built in the mid-1800s to guard a bluff overlooking the Penobscot River. They also hoped the new span would not clash with the backdrop of the town of Bucksport, which dates to the late 1700s.
A roughened gray granite exterior coat is being applied to the bridge towers as they rise from the banks of the river. The granite ties in to the fort by its color but also by a foot path that will link it to the bridge.
It also turns out that granite from Maine’s Mount Waldo, which was used to build Fort Knox, was also used in the interior of the Washington Monument. This link was part of the inspiration for the monument-like design of the bridge towers, which will also house the 420-foot-high observation deck accessible by elevator.
The deck will offer breathtaking vistas. From 240 feet up as the east tower was being built, the rounded mountaintops of Acadia National Park could be seen in the distance. From another angle, Penobscot Bay glistened under the July sun. Upriver, Bucksport bustles and Fort Knox lorded over the river’s narrows.
Not everyone is happy with how the project has turned out. Lloyd Bridges, a selectman for the town of 543, said residents who wanted a new suspension cable bridge like the old one were ignored.
“In my opinion, they knew what they were going to do when they started,” said Bridges, adding that “it’s going to take a long time” to get used to the replacement.
Bridges and others also question why 281,000 tons of granite had to be blasted from a hillside near the bridge’s western approach, saying the gouged-out site has created an eyesore.
Builders say the ledge was removed so Route 1 can make a more gradual, rounder turn onto the new span, rather than the sharp turn motorists have had to make as they drive on and off to the old bridge.
The new bridge itself has yet to take its final form, but when the 16-inch-diameter supporting cables are finally strung in place it will have a profile of other cable-stay spans, notable for their straighter lines and sharper angles than traditional designs. Other eastern bridges utilizing the design include the Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston and Sunshine Skyway in Florida.
It’s become the design of choice for medium-length spans because it requires less cable and enables engineers to build identical precast sections, saving on construction costs.
“It’s the most economical (design) in the 1,000 to 2,000-foot range,” said the lead engineer for the Maine project, Christopher Burgess of the Denver-based Figg Bridge Engineers Inc.
Corroded suspension cables were discovered on the old bridge in 2003, prompting the state to detour heavier trucks 40 miles to other routes until additional backup cables could be strung. The state almost immediately set its sights on building a span to replace the old one, which will eventually be dismantled.
State and federal funds are being used to build the new bridge, which can already be spotted from miles around by construction cranes that pierce the skyline. The cranes stand alongside the bridge’s two supporting towers, which by mid-July were more than halfway to their design height of 440 feet.
The cranes are being used to lower concrete into forms, raising the piers 15 feet at a time, said Ryan Corum, a DOT inspector at the construction site. Inside the forms, grids of steel reinforcing bars form an elaborate pattern testifying to the structure’s design strength.
“There’s a lot of rebar in this bridge,” said Corum, noting that some strands will run the entire height of the towers. Altogether, 721 million pounds of rebar will strengthen the structure.
Comments are no longer available on this story