Piscataqua River Bridge
N 43° 05.561 W 070° 45.988
19T E 356233 N 4772621
Piscataqua River Bridge connecting Portsmouth,NH and Kittery,ME
Waymark Code: WM6AK2
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 05/03/2009
Views: 13
The Piscataqua River Bridge, is a cantilevered through arch bridge that crosses the Piscataqua River, carrying six lanes of Interstate 95 and connecting Portsmouth, New Hampshire with Kittery, Maine. The bridge is the third modern span crossing the Piscataqua between Portsmouth and Kittery, but it is the first fixed span to do so. The two older spans, the Memorial Bridge and the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, are both lift bridges, built as such to accommodate ship traffic along the Piscataqua. The high arch design of the Piscataqua River Bridge eliminates the need for a movable roadway.
As part of the Interstate Highway System, Interstate 95 was routed along the New Hampshire Turnpike, which had opened to traffic in 1950, and paralleled US 1 through New Hampshire's seacoast from the Massachusetts border to the Turnpike's end at the Portsmouth Circle.[3] Between the Portsmouth Circle and the beginning of the Maine Turnpike, there was a gap in I-95 that was filled by the US 1 Bypass, crossing over the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge. Since the Long bridge is a lift bridge with only a two lane roadway, it was far from meeting Interstate Highway standards.
The decision was made to extend I-95 north from the New Hampshire Turnpike at Portsmouth and south from the Maine Turnpike in Kittery, and join the roads with an uninterrupted high speed span over the Piscataqua. Work on the bridge was completed in 1971, and the I-95 extension to it in Maine was completed the following year.[4] This resulted in an oddity in exit numbering in Maine.
At the time, both Maine and New Hampshire numbered their exits in sequential order rather than mile-based numbering, and while New Hampshire's extended I-95 simply added exits 4 through 7, the extension in Maine was south of its Turnpike, so I-95 there gained four new exits, starting with exit 1. Maine decided not to renumber the exits on the Turnpike, however, so the end result was that after crossing the bridge into Maine, I-95 had exits 1 to 4, and then Exits 2 to 4 after the toll booths in York. This lasted for over twenty years until 2004, when Maine DOT switched to a mile-based numbering scheme for its exits and made the numbering for exits along Maine's full length of I-95 continuous.
Length of bridge: 4,503 ft
Height of bridge: 158.1 ft
What type of traffic does this bridge support?: Motor Vehicles
What kind of gap does this bridge cross?:
Piscataqua River
Date constructed: 1971-72
Is the bridge still in service for its original purpose?: Yes
Name of road or trail the bridge services: Interstate 95
Location:
Portsmouth,NH/Kittery,ME
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