Rehabilitation of the Northbound Bridge
Project 0094-0261 includes the rehabilitation of The Gold Star Memorial Bridge carrying Interstate 95 Northbound over the Thames River, New England Central Railroad, Providence and Worcester Railroad and local roads in New London and Groton.
The Northbound bridge was constructed in 1943 and a major rehabilitation was performed in the mid-1970s to replace the bridge deck, stringers and floorbeams in several spans and the entire superstructure in several truss spans over the river and east approach girder spans. The bridge is 5,931 feet long with a total of 30 spans consisting of truss-floorbeam-stringer superstructures and girder-floorbeam-stringer superstructures supported by reinforced concrete piers and abutments. The typical bridge cross section has an out-to-out width of 83 feet – 10 inches and carries five 12-foot-wide travel lanes and 10-foot-wide left and right shoulders. The bridge widens at the east end to accommodate two exit lanes at Exit 85 to US Route 1/Downtown Groton. Based on information from 2017, the average daily traffic on the bridge is 52,000 vehicles.
At project initiation, the rehabilitation of the Northbound Gold Star Bridge was broken into three phases:
- Phase 1a – Truss span strengthening
- Phase 1b – Approach girder span strengthening
- Phase 2 – Deck Replacement
Phase 1a is currently in construction under Project No. 94-256 and the original contract work is anticipated to be completed in June 2025.
As design progressed, it was determined that there are several benefits to performing the approach girder span strengthening concurrently with the deck removal and replacement. It was decided that Phase 1b and Phase 2 would be combined into, and advertised as one project, Project No. 94-261.
To facilitate construction of Project No. 94-261, two Interstate 95 Northbound lanes will be temporarily crossed over and carried by the Southbound Gold Star Bridge over the Thames River. During the crossover, three Interstate 95 Southbound lanes and two Interstate 95 Northbound lanes will be provided on the Southbound Gold Star Bridge with a temporary barrier bolted through the deck between the two bounds. Two Interstate 95 Northbound lanes will be maintained on the Northbound Gold Star Bridge during peak hours.
Once the crossover is in-place, the work on the Northbound Gold Star Bridge is proposed to occur in two stages. The first stage will involve removing the deck and stringers (in applicable spans) from the fascia to approximately the main girders/trusses, completing the steel strengthening and placing the new precast concrete exodermic deck panels. The second stage will involve shifting traffic to the new deck and replacing the deck in the remaining section.
