Baldwin Bridge

The Baldwin Bridge provides a twin structure crossing (four traffic lanes, with two shoulders) for Interstate Route 95 over the Connecticut River between the communities of Old Lyme and Old Saybrook. Perini/PCL/O&G, a Joint Venture, were awarded the project, based on a bid price of approximately $93.8M for the concrete segmental in December of 1989. (The low steel bid was $99.9M).

The concrete segmental alternate is composed of parallel bridges, 2,529-ft. long, with spans varying from 177-ft. to 275-ft. long, typical spans are 240-ft. long. The westbound roadway is 86-ft. wide and the eastbound roadway is 77-ft. wide. Each segment is a “strutted” twin web, box girder, 12-ft. deep, weighing between 150- and 170-tons, and is longitudinally, transversely, and vertically pre- stressed.

Because of the site and project restraints, the Contractor proposed an alternate erection scheme in which the precast segments are placed in balanced cantilever by an overhead launching gantry, without interruption to the river traffic. The overhead gantry consisted of dual trusses, 17-ft. deep and 430-ft. long. Total weight of the gantry is 600-tons. One year was required to design, fabricate and commission the gantry.

The project was opened to traffic in late May of 1993.