Washington Street Bridge Replacement

As part of the Commonwealth’s Accelerated Bridge Program, BETA was retained by MassDOT to design the bridge replacement carrying Washington Street over the Mill River. The replacement bridge was widened by over 20 feet to accommodate four lanes of traffic and two sidewalks. Being located just north of the Taunton Green, in a highly urban area, sandwiched between two heavily used intersections, and just west of a major area hospital, maintaining traffic during construction was paramount. In addition, the bridge carries every public and private utility required by any major city including: permanent and temporary water, low and high pressure gas, electric, cable, street lighting, and telephone services.

BETA designed the project to use accelerated bridge construction techniques through the use of precast concrete deck panels and pile supported integral abutments which helped to reduce the construction duration. A multi-staged construction sequence and corresponding traffic management plans were also developed to maintain traffic.

Extensive coordination with the City and each utility owner was performed to ensure every utility was properly accommodated. In addition, traffic signals were added to the adjacent intersection to the west and coordinated with the existing signals to the east of the bridge.