The opening of the new $318 million steel arch bridge, located along Interstate 95 between Newburyport and Amesbury, was celebrated at an Oct. 30 ribbon-cutting event that included participation by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker.

This project consisted of replacing the existing John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge; widening and improving a four-mile section including interchange improvements and highway lighting of I-95 in Newburyport, Amesbury, and Salisbury; and replacing four adjacent bridges.

WSP USA, as the project preliminary designer and environmental permitting engineer developed the design-build procurement documents and continued throughout the project as the owner’s engineer, working on behalf of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). WSP developed the plan to replace the original six-lane, double-arch bridge as part of MassDOT’s $3 billion accelerated bridge program.

“The project started as an idea to simplify construction staging and design by building the new northbound bridge wide enough to replicate the existing six-lane travel configuration in an interim condition, allowing for the demolition of the existing double arch in a single demolition phase,” said Mike Bertoulin, WSP project manager. “The southbound bridge could then be constructed, opened and the northbound bridge would be reconfigured to its final four-lane design. The extra staging lane took over 30 months off the project schedule and was repurposed into a shared-use path.”

This innovative staging solution eliminated any construction phase traffic impacts to this busy commuter and regional recreational corridor to New Hampshire and Maine. “The project’s architect, Jeff Lowe, from that starting point, worked with the design team and developed a vision that became a reality,” Bertoulin said. “It became the first MassDOT bridge to add alternative travel to an interstate bridge replacement.”