2025 ACEC-NH & NHDOT Technical Exchange Conference

Session 10A: Fern Hollow Bridge Emergency Replacement Project Pittsburgh, PA
Speaker: Jason Fuller, HDR
- January 2022 the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed. This critical NHS route is a diversion route for I-376, with 100,000+ vpd. Immediately, PennDOT, the City of Pittsburgh and FHWA used an emergency declaration to hire HDR to design and Swank Construction to construct the project using a design-build process. Instantly it was clear that schedule and budget were critical to implementing the project. Early coordination with the agencies, contractor and designer was critical. The permanent bridge was reopened to traffic in under 11 months, in December 2022. This could only be accomplished by the collaboration that the emergency design-build process provided.

Session 10B: Madawaska-Edmundson International Bridge Replacement
Speakers: Josh Olund, HNTB
- The international bridge spanning from Madawaska, Maine to Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada serves as the sole link between a close-knit, mixed-national community. When inspection of this critical structure’s load capacity called for all truck traffic to travel through the next border crossing—approximately 20 miles away—MaineDOT and other stakeholders recognized the need for an alternative plan.

Within four years, working alongside countless stakeholders, HNTB evaluated and designed a six-span, steel girder replacement bridge that reaches an overall length of 1,828 feet and is a landmark for the community. The four-girder-designed system supports two lanes of traffic, six-foot shoulders for multimodal traffic and a six-foot sidewalk for pedestrians.