RICHMOND — The new Richmond-Dresden bridge opened to much fanfare Friday.
Elementary school students from the two towns on opposite ends of the new span across the Kennebec River met in the middle of the bridge, called the Maine Kennebec Bridge, for grand opening ceremonies with temperatures in the teens and thin pieces of ice floating by on the river below.
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Bridge Facts
The new Richmond-Dresden bridge:
• New name: The Maine Kennebec Bridge
• 1,344 foot long bridge structure, or 1,474 feet including the new raised approach from the Richmond side
• 2.2 million pounds of structural steel
• 32 feet wide
• three-inch paved wearing surface
• a three-bar steel rail on both sides
• the bridge does not have a sidewalk but is much wider than the previous bridge, which also does not have a sidewalk
• designed to last 100 years
• total estimated cost of $18.6 million, with $14.3 million of that construction costs
The new bridge towers over the nearly 84-year-old swing-span bridge it will replace, which continued to carry traffic across the river during a ribbon cutting ceremony Friday. The familiar humming and thunking sounds from cars crossing the aged, rusted, and dented old structure sometimes partially drowned out speakers on the new bridge during ceremonies attended by hundreds of local residents and several dignitaries including U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, Gov. Paul LePage, and Greg Nadeau, acting director of the Federal Highway Administration.
At low tide, the new bridge is 115 feet above the water, according to Jack Parker, president of Woolwich-based Reed and Reed, the firm that built the $18.6 million bridge.
Collins recalled, three years ago, touring the old bridge with Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt, and cringing while they drove across it because the bridge is so narrow she was convinced their vehicle would be struck by a large sport utility vehicle headed in the opposite direction. She viewed the many dents in the bridge structure where trucks, a bit too tall to make it across, hit and bent the steel upper structure over the years.
“I then knew, this bridge had to be a priority for replacement,” said Collins, who high-fived many of the elementary school students on hand for the ceremony on her way to the stage set up in the middle of the bridge. “I called the secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood, and said, you won’t believe the bridge I just went over. I sent him pictures of it.”
Federal money is covering 80 percent of the cost, and the state transportation department is funding the other 20 percent.
LePage said the new bridge should outlive everyone at the bridge opening ceremony, as it is projected to last at least 100 years.
Some attendees Friday did out-live the old bridge, including Bob Sidelinger, 91, of Richmond, who, with other local senior citizens, helped cut the ribbon for the new bridge. Members of his family took his photograph and called him a celebrity as he walked off the bridge, carrying a piece of ribbon from the ribbon cutting.
Russell Ring, who grew up in Richmond and came from his home in Union for the bridge opening, was born in 1931, the same year the old bridge was built. He said he remembers when part of that span was taken out by an ice jam and washed downriver in 1936. He said he has lots of good memories involving the old bridge, including using it to cross the river to get to dances at Pownalborough Hall on the Dresden side of the Kennebec.
But the 83-year-old Ring said he won’t miss the old bridge, and he thinks the new bridge is “beautiful.”
The bridge opened to vehicles early Friday afternoon and the old bridge is now closed to traffic.
The old bridge will be torn down over the next several months.
Parker said the target completion date for the project wasn’t until December of 2015, which included removal of the old bridge. The construction project was completed ahead of schedule despite workers on the job enduring the weather extremes of working as high up as 115 feet off the water and the howling winds that go with such a setting.
He said workers endured temperatures as low as 20 below zero in winter, as well as sweltering conditions in July to complete the bridge.
He thanked area residents for enduring the disruption of construction, and said the company did not receive a single complaint while the work was going on.
Bernhardt said to design and build such a substantial and important bridge in a three year period “truly is amazing.”
“It’s a historic day when you can help two great communities stay connected,” Bernhardt said, noting the bus-loads of students from each side of the river will be able to say, as they cross the bridge over the rest of their lives, “We opened that bridge. We sang at that bridge. We froze at that bridge.”
The Richmond High School band, despite the cold, played the National Anthem while members of the local American Legion held up United States and Maine flags at the peak of the steep arching bridge.
The elementary school children sang the song “Under One Sky,” but with lyrics customized for the event, including “We are neighbors connected by deep roots. And this new bridge… We’re a family under one sky.”
Jonathan Yellowbear, of Litchfield, a member of the Abenaki nation, his face and head painted red and wearing a traditional outfit including feathers and fur, offered a blessing for the bridge, saying “Father and creator in the sky, thank you for this new causeway built for us to travel across this great river. And thank you for the safety it will provide all of us.”
Nadeau, of Lewiston, brother to Phil Nadeau, a former Richmond town manager, said the bridge and the safe way across the river it provides is crucial to the entire region and state and the region’s economy. He said the bridge received federal funding from a program which receives 14 times more requests for project funding than it can provide.
In 2012 the bridge project was one of four nationwide designated to be fast-tracked through the federal “We Can’t Wait,” initiative, which was part of the federal stimulus program initiated by President Barack Obama.
The bridge was built to provide at least 75 feet of clearance from the river below, at high tide. That height was necessary to allow Coast Guard ice breakers to get upriver to Gardiner to break ice, which helps prevent flooding.
The previous, much lower bridge, had a span that would swing open to allow taller boats through, requiring it to be staffed part-time with someone to open and close the bridge over the summer months. The 1,239-foot steel old bridge required a lot of maintenance, transportation officials said, and several times over the last 10 years it got stuck open, requiring help from a fire truck to pull it closed.
The bridge carries some 3,200 vehicles a day across the river, and is a popular alternative way for some to travel to the coast, and is also used by workers commuting to Bath Iron Works, officials noted.
State and volunteer archaeologists spent at least two summers digging at the site to document and preserve artifacts there. The site of the Richmond end of the bridge was the location of two former colonial forts, both known as Fort Richmond, with the oldest dating to the 1720s.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @kedwardskj
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