GZA GeoEnvironmental recognized for international bridgework
PHOTO / COURTESY, DESCHAINE DIGITAL
In the foreground, the new Madawaska Land Port of Entry marks the entrance to the new Madawaska-Edmundston International Bridge. The old bridge is in the background.
GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc., headquartered in Norwood, Mass., with an office in South Portland, received an engineering excellence award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Maine for its work on the new Madawaska-Edmundston International Bridge.
The multi-disciplinary firm provides geotechnical, environmental, ecological, water and construction management services.
The project, led by the Maine Department of Transportation, involved replacing the fatigued through-truss bridge over the St. John River between Maine and New Brunswick that first opened in 1920.
The replacement bridge connects from the existing Canadian land port of entry to the southwest across the river to the new U.S. land port of entry located 1,500 feet upstream. The new 1,850-foot- long, six-span, steel girder, concrete deck bridge crosses the river and two active railroad lines on either side of the river.
The bridge opened to traffic in August 2024.
Steep riverbanks
Serving as a subcontractor to bridge designer HNTB Corp., GZA and its partners overcame major engineering challenges including steep 40- to 60-foot-high riverbanks, heavy vegetation, lack of vehicle access and shallow, rapidly flowing river waters that precluded use of a barge for exploratory drilling to determine bedrock elevations for support of the bridge piers.
GZA’s solutions for exploration and construction quality assurance included use of an over-water seismic refraction survey to locate bedrock, deploying helicopters to place customized drilling platforms and test boring drill rigs in precise locations, and designing a network of thermal integrity profiling sensors to confirm the reliability of the cast-in-place concrete drilled shaft pier foundations.
This was the first bridge in Maine to use thermal integrity profiling as the primary drilled shaft concrete quality assurance tool.
Exploration innovation
In a letter of endorsement to American Council of Engineering Companies of Maine, Laura Krusinski, senior geotechnical engineer of the MaineDOT Bridge Program, recommended “that GZA be recognized for their exemplary geotechnical contributions on this significant project” and authorized “publication of the project’s exemplary geotechnical exploration innovations and foundation designs.”
GZA President and CEO Patrick Sheehan said: “The Madawaska-Edmundston International Bridge is a critical connection between northern Maine and eastern Canada.”
In addition to MaineDOT and HNTB, GZA’s partners on the project included test boring subcontractor geophysical subcontractor VCS Engineering|NDT Division of Sterling, Mass.; New England Boring Contractors of Hermon; general contractor Reed & Reed of Woolwich; and drilled shaft contractor Malcolm Drilling of San Francisco.
GZA’s project team included Associate Principal Andy Blaisdell; principal Chris Snow; project manager Nicholas Williams; project manager Rayan Shamas; assistant project manager Erin Tome; assistant project manager Luis Navarrete; and project engineer Michael Deery.
GZA has roughly 700 professionals based in 32 offices across the U.S.
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