The Chelsea Street Bridge is a movable bridge over the Chelsea River between East Boston and Chelsea. Because the City of Boston was under an Order to Alter from the U.S. Coast Guard under provisions of the Truman-Hobbs Act, the original 140-foot Straus-Heel Trunnion bascule span needed to be replaced with a 380-foot vertical lift span providing 175 feet of vertical clearance. These new clearances were deemed necessary to improve navigation on this critical channel. The construction was funded through the Massachusetts Recovery Plan, which integrated state resources with federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Nitsch provided land surveying and transportation engineering services to support the reconstruction of Chelsea Street, a four-lane urban arterial. We prepared contract documents for reconstruction of the roadway including plan, profile, utility relocations, drainage modifications, traffic control, and property easements.
We performed a highly detailed topographic survey of the Chelsea Street Bridge, including the approaches from East Boston and Chelsea, and determined the existing right-of-way and U.S. Pier & Bulkhead line. We also performed survey monitoring for bridge sway and used laser scanning to prepare an as-built of the new bridge in order to determine whether the new rail systems conformed to design standards.
Key Collaborators
Owner: City of Boston
Engineer: HNTB Corporation
