Free Republic

AMESBURY — A recent quality inspection of the $300 million John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge replacement project turned up evidence of substandard work – for the second time – that could push back the project’s estimated late summer/early fall completion date. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation began work to demolish the 62-year-old Interstate 95 bridge over the Merrimack River and replace it with separate northbound and southbound bridges in 2013. While the northbound bridge was completed in 2015, quality inspectors for MassDOT recently found that concrete poured for a pier cap on the southbound bridge by an unnamed contractor did not...

Rotting holes in steel support beams, enormous rust patches, small splits in steel girders and broken bracing are evident all along the underside of the John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge, the heavily traveled Interstate 95 span that crosses the Merrimack River between Amesbury and Newburyport. A just-released state safety report filed in the wake of last year's disastrous collapse of the similarly designed Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis gave the 57-year-old Whittier Bridge "poor" ratings due to deterioration. On a 10-step ranking system, the rating is just two steps above the point where engineers consider closing a bridge due to safety...