PORTSMOUTH — Today should finally be the day the lift span of the Memorial Bridge is detached and floated down river.

The major construction milestone has been delayed twice since Monday.

New Hampshire Department of Transportation officials announced Tuesday afternoon that the lift span would be removed today between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

On Tuesday, construction crews worked to secure the counterweights on each of the two towers.

“Because once you cut those cables, obviously you don't want those dropping,” New Hampshire DOT spokesman Bill Boynton said. “They weigh half-a-million pounds apiece.”

The weights are what allow the span to be lifted, and look like giant blocks on the top of each tower.

This morning, crews are expected to set up the 2 million-ton barge that the lift span is to be loaded on.

“As soon as they feel the span is clear of the deck and being supported by the barge, then they'll cut the cables and push it out,” Boynton said. The barge will likely carry the span upriver toward the state pier, where it will be secured for a voyage to a scrapyard, he said.

Boynton said officials are confident the work will be completed within the 72-hour window set by the U.S. Coast Guard during which commercial marine traffic has been restricted. The window expires at 7 a.m. Thursday.

Boynton said there is no specific reason for the delay, other than it is a very large and complex phase of the project.

People have been gathering in Prescott Park and near One Harbour Place in larger numbers every day to watch the construction crews dismantle the 90-year-old bridge.


“There is just a tremendous amount of interest in this project on both sides of the river,” Boynton said. “It is a very visible location, and the lift span is going out the same way it came in 90 years ago, so people feel like they are witnessing history.”

Helen MacMellon grew up in Portsmouth but now lives in Amherst, Mass. That did not stop her from making the two-hour trek to stand on the North Pier and watch the bridge go down.

“Even though I am sad it's going, I think it's a historical event,” MacMellon said. “My heart is still in Portsmouth and I want to come back someday, so I want to see the next step of improvements to the community.”

And it is not very often you get to see a bridge come down, she added.

Judy and Bob Hollister drove from neighboring Kittery, Maine, to watch the construction, and spent most of the day at the pier.

The couple moved to Kittery in 2004 to be nearer to their grandchildren, and walked over the Memorial Bridge at least weekly to meet their daughter for coffee in downtown Portsmouth.

Judy Hollister said she does not care what the new bridge will look like.

“We just need a bridge,” she said.

Archer Western of Canton, Mass., is the lead contractor on the $81.4 million project and has set a construction deadline of July 2013 for the new bridge to be open for pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular traffic.