Celebrating Two Award-Winning Projects: Bement Covered Bridge & Rogers Rangers Bridge

We are proud to announce we have won multiple awards this year on two different bridge projects – Bement Covered Bridge and Rogers Rangers Bridge. This time the awards have come from the American Council of Engineering Companies New Hampshire Chapter (ACEC-NH) in the annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA), Structural Engineers of New Hampshire (SENH) Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards and the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance’s annual Achievement Awards. All three competitions evaluate entries from engineering firms across the country on factors including innovation, complexity and value to the community.

We submitted these projects for their unique processes, and are happy to be celebrating both. The Bement Covered Bridge Rehabilitation project was awarded the 2022 Preservation Achievement Award, the Excellence Award from SENH, and the ACEC EEA Silver Award. The Roger’s Rangers Bridge was recognized with honorable mention in ACEC’s EEA awards.

Bement Covered Bridge Rehabilitation

The Bement Covered Bridge in Bradford, New Hampshire is one of the four surviving Long Trusses in the state and one of 25 remaining in the United States. Although some original bridge elements were still in use prior to the 2021 rehabilitation, the bridge has been rehabilitated numerous times, most recently in 2012. The bridge is a single-lane with a weight limit that allows use by passenger cars only. The rehabilitation work we designed was lead by Senior Structural Engineer Josif Bicja, PE and involved replacement of the north abutment due to its poor and failing condition, replacement of non-original members, the replacement “in-kind” of other members that may or may not be original but are rotted or damaged to the extent that they lack historical integrity, and the addition of reversible structural reinforcing members. All work was conducted in accordance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties by not altering any aspects of the property’s historic integrity or character-defining features that make it eligible for the National Register.

The new bridge retains the overall structure/appearance of the original bridge by replicating the curved bridge portals and reconstructing a new north abutment that closely resembled the existing south abutment. The bridge is a vital piece of the Town’s history for the region by providing an attraction place and promoting tourism, which is a driver of economic growth and development for the Town of Bradford. In addition, it demonstrates the role that engineering plays in our infrastructure.

Rogers Rangers Bridge

This project was led by Senior Structural Engineer Edward Weingartner, PE and included the evaluation of rehabilitation or replacement of the existing US Route 2 Bridge over the Connecticut River, which is jointly owned by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans). The purpose of the project was to provide a safe, sustainable, efficient and cost-effective multimodal movement of people and goods across the Connecticut River while supporting transportation, commerce, economic development and regional emergency response needs for the communities of Lancaster, New Hampshire and Guildhall, Vermont.

Hoyle Tanner and our teammates at Normandeau Associates, Historic Documentation Company and Independent Archaeological Consulting provided alternative evaluation, preliminary and final design services, NEPA documentation, utility coordination, Right-of-Way coordination, development of an Individual Inventory Form to determine the historic integrity and eligibility of the existing bridge, archaeological investigations, and permitting services to NHDOT for the replacement of the existing US Route 2 Bridge over the Connecticut River. The new bridge, which is located approximately 50 feet upstream of the existing bridge, is a modern structure that carries design loads greater than those used for the extant trusses. This bridge type eliminates the only vertical clearance limitation on US Route 2 within New Hampshire which is vital to the local, regional, interstate, and international movement of freight via the trucking industry.

Thank you to ACEC and the NH Preservation Alliance for their recognition of the hard work and dedication put into these two projects by all parties, and congratulations to all the other winners!