Sarah Long Bridge Between New Hampshire, Maine Closes Permanently
A mechanical failure in the tower on the New Hampshire side of the Sarah Long Bridge that connects Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine, has caused the 76-year-old structure to be closed permanently.
The bridge, one of three crossings between the states over the Piscataqua River, was already set to be shut to traffic on Nov. 1 to allow for ongoing construction of its replacement ,which is scheduled to open in September 2017. The 44-year-old “High Level Bridge,” which carries Interstate 95, and the Memorial Bridge, which carries U.S. Route 1 and replaced an older structure in 2013, will handle additional traffic until the new Sarah Long Bridge, which New Hampshire’s Department of Transportation estimates will require 68% fewer openings because of its wider and higher clearance, is ready.
The mechanical issue was discovered Aug. 21. Early the next morning, engineers were able to lift the bridge to the up position to accommodate marine traffic. However, they soon determined that the bridge wasn’t safe for routine vehicular operation without repairs, which would cost at least $1 million and take more than six weeks to complete.
New Hampshire Department of Transportation spokesman Bill Boynton said the Sarah Long Bridge was the state’s most structurally deficient bridge before the mechanical failure. The now-closed bridge carried 14,000 vehicles a day, many of those trucks weighing up to 20,000 pounds. It was the second to carry motor vehicle traffic between Maine and New Hampshire, replacing a river crossing dating back to 1822.
