At SPS, our bridge projects bring us into some incredible neighborhoods and communities throughout the State and its always our goal to improve each before we depart.
Recently we’ve had the pleasure of working on the Dalton St. Bridge directly adjacent to one of the most iconic firehouses in Boston, Engine 33 & Ladder 15. Positioned on the Boston Marathon Route the firefighters from this house are some of the busiest in the City answering thousands of calls a year.
As SPS completes our bridge project, we are proud and humbled to deliver a refurbished Boston Marathon Bench to our First Responders at Engine 33 & Ladder 15.
BFD, Thank You for answering the bell every day and for all you do to Keep Boston Running!
Special thanks to HCSS for featuring our Award-Winning I-495 Haverhill Design Build Project.
From the article:
“SPS New England successfully navigated these challenges to deliver a much-needed infrastructure upgrade. Their expertise in bridge building has been a partnership with HCSS since 2002, when tighter profit margins required the company to shift from a revenue-based company that relied on accounting for relaying costs after-the-fact, to a company that could instantly measure daily costs using HeavyJob in 2005. Operating with a budget created directly from the estimate created in HeavyBid, SPS New England’s foremen can use their iPads in the field to track the time their crew spends on a specific phase of work against the budget set by the estimators.
With the seamless integration of HeavyBid to HeavyJob, the budgeted production rate from HeavyBid, along with logged man-hours, quantity tracking, and material tracking can inform the field if they are ahead or behind.
According to SPS – a resource and cost-loaded critical path method (CPM) schedule was used for this project. Implementing a CPM schedule in conjunction with the project controls of HeavyJob, HCSS provided the project management team with up-to-date job cost information, projected spending, and cost projections. This led to an overall best-practice management of the project’s budget. Change orders accounted for $4,043,729.81 (4.24 percent) of the project value; 90 percent of this amount was attributed to an owner-directed safety improvement for designing and constructing a slip ramp on the I-495 mainline.”
Railroad-SPS New England worked 24 hours a day from September 6th to September 29th on a shutdown of the MBTA Red Line between JFK/UMass Station and Braintree Station with Railroad-SPS crews working between Tenean Beach and Wollaston Station. Railroad-SPS crews replaced over 7000 ties, just under 13000 feet of Rail, destressed over 34500 feet of rail, replaced the Linden Street Truck Pad, performed various switch work, as well has dressed the track with just under 3000 Tons of Ballast. The work performed by Railroad-SPS helped to lift (9) total speed restrictions and allow trains to travel at speeds up to 50 mph for the first time since the track was built.
Over the past 6 months, SPS performed a significant amount of work to replace the Dorchester Avenue Bridge over the MBTA Red Line and Old Colony Commuter Rail Tracks. As of September 23, 2024, the bridge has been reopened to pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
This month’s SPS Safety Focus is all about Fire Prevention. Have you inspected your fire extinguishers lately? Are they fully charged, strategically located, accessible and ready for use? Or, are they laden with dust, obscurely hidden in some corner, affording a false sense of security?
The following is a brief resume of the classification of fires, and the recommended extinguisher to be used on each…
Fire at a construction site can endanger the lives of workers and others who happen to be on the site. A fire during construction can also result in severe structural damage, and destruction of machinery, equipment, or materials, and untimely delay in project completion.
The fire tetrahedron consists of four elements that must be present for the occurrence of fire. The four elements are oxygen, heat, fuel, and a chemical chain reaction. If you remove any of the essential elements, the fire will be extinguished.
SPS New England of Salisbury, Mass., is the lead contractor after offering a low bid of $107.5 million.
The long-planned project will be paid with 80 percent federal funds with the state’s 20 percent match coming from turnpike toll credits, according to Jennifer Reczek, a New Hampshire Department of Transportation bridge engineer.
The bascule bridge was built in 1949 and replaced a wooden bridge originally constructed for trollies and cars, known as the “Mile-Long Bridge,” according to NHDOT. It has been rehabilitated multiple times, in 1963, 1978, 1983, 1990, 2002 and 2010. Emergency repairs to the bascule span mechanical were undertaken in 2018.
Photo courtesy of NHDOT
According to SPS New England, the project will replace the State Red List Neil R. Underwood Bridge that carries NH 1A (Ocean Boulevard) over the Hampton River at the inlet to Hampton Harbor. The project limit begins on NH 1A in the town of Seabrook approximately 1,500 ft. south of the proposed bridge and continues northerly on NH 1A 3,900 ft. across the bridge to a point approximately 100 ft. south of the intersection with Ashworth Avenue in the town of Hampton.
The existing bridge is 1,193 ft. between abutments and consists of 13-spans with a moveable single-leaf bascule span in the center at the navigational channel. The bridge width is 26 ft. between curbs. The 150-ft.-wide federal navigational channel is reduced to 40 ft. as it passes beneath the movable bridge span.
“The proposed bridge will be a fixed high-level steel girder structure on a new horizontally curved alignment west of the existing bridge. The bridge will consist of seven spans and have a length of 1,300 feet between abutments. The bridge width will be 38 feet between two curbs [two 11-foot travel lanes and 8-foot shoulders] and include two 6-foot sidewalks with overlooks at Piers 2 and 5. The bridge will accommodate the full 150-foot-wide channel with a vertical clearance of approximately 48 feet. The improvements to the navigational channel will provide clearance for all regular waterway users, including U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging equipment that is currently too large to transit the existing bridge for the harbor channel to the west,” SPS New England said.
Thank you to Laborers Local 976, Piledrivers and Divers Local 56, Iron Workers Local 7, Carpenters Local 349, and Operating Engineers Local 4 for their participation and attendance yesterday morning signing a partnership agreement with OSHA. The partnership agreement signifies this group’s commitment to a safe and healthful jobsite at the NH1A Over Hampton River Bridge Replacement Project.
Seabrook-Hampton Project Update: Crews have finished the northern bulkhead to enable access for bridge construction in Hampton. We have shifted operations to the southern workzone in Seabrook and set up the job site and mobilized in our HC 150 Crawler Crane. Our focus is installing the southern abutment cofferdam sheet pile wall and the southern bulkhead to allow access for bridge construction in Seabrook.
SPS New England is nearing completion at the City of Boston Glenwood Avenue Pedestrian Bridges in Hyde Park. The new timber decking was completed last week following structural steel repairs and bridge painting that began in June 2023. The bridge will be opened this fall for pedestrian traffic.
It’s OK to ask for help. September is Recovery Month and a good time to make sure you have the support you need to recover. Explore your support options at samhsa.gov/find-support/health-care-or-support.
Feeling connected to others can help anyone on their path to recovery. This Recovery Month, check out inspiring stories of hope and recovery: 988lifeline.org/stories/
Relationships and social networks lead to friendship, love, hope, and support. Recovery can be a more manageable journey with the support of others. samhsa.gov/find-support
