Fun Facts!

• In total, the Memorial Bridge weighs about 5,500 tons, with over half that weight being the structural steel.
• There are 77,000 Structural, and numerous other types of bolts on the bridge.
• The blue bolts are covered in a wax coating, which will fade overtime.
• The new Memorial Bridge was designed and constructed without gusset plate by designing the various pieces fit together like puzzle pieces, by a process known as splicing.
• The steel portions of the bridge are coated in zinc. This protective coating is expected to last 40-50 years without requiring maintenance.
• The name of the color of the bridge, as voted on at the annual Kittery Block Party, is Piscataqua Mist.
• The 1922 granite piers were reconstructed using micropile technology for the new bridge, eliminating in-water work, and preventing disturbance of the river bed.
• To reduce overall quantities of materials the bridge design minimized the weight of the center lift span, tower heights, and overall steel square footage.
• To minimize subsurface vibrations near the historic buildings, drilled shaft foundations were used for the new Scott Avenue Bridge (as opposed to pile foundations).