In June, the Connecticut Department of Transportation ceremoniously broke ground for the I-95 Pearl Harbor Memorial (“Q”) Bridge across New Haven harbor—a 10-lane, extradosed, cable-stayed span bridge and the first of its kind in the U.S.  Since the design phase began in 1999, HSH has been managing the project’s vital public outreach and involvement services via a local field office currently staffed by HSH liaison Kristen Stiff.

The bridge is part of a $2 billion project to expand roadways on and around the I-95 corridor as it passes through New Haven.  Its innovative “extradosed” technology employs a structure described as “a cross between a girder bridge and a cable-stayed bridge” that allows much lower towers, a thinner deck, and longer spans between towers than a typical cable-stayed bridge such as Boston’s Leonard Zakim Bridge.  To date, about 36 bridges in India, Canada, Latin America, and East Asia have employed this technology.

HSH assists ConnDOT and the project team by gathering information on the public’s concerns and comments, keeping the public informed on the progress of design and now construction, facilitating meetings, handling the vast amounts of paperwork involved in the process, and overseeing the project Web site (www.i95newhaven.com), which posts up-to-date information and offers a mechanism for providing feedback on the project.

HSH continues to manage the public outreach and involvement program as the project advances into construction, expected to be completed in 2016.  Work on the bridge will be done “off-line,” so daytime traffic will not be interrupted and any lane closures will take place only at night.

In an earlier planning phase of the project (from 1993 to 1998), HSH's Kathy Stein facilitated meetings of the community-based Intermodal Concept Development Committee to identify potential solutions for repair or replacement of the existing I–95 bridge.  In this innovative process, the state invited participation from neighborhood, civic, and environmental groups, economic development associations, transportation interests, and municipal and state agency representatives.

The June 20th groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Connecticut luminaries Governor Jodi Rell, Commissioner Joseph Marie, Deputy Commissioner Jim Boice, Past Commissioner Jim Byrnes, and representatives for Senator Dodd and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro.  The groundbreaking was featured locally on Channel 8, Channel 3, NBC 30, and in various local newspapers.

-- Rachel French and Michelle M. Faith