Final Environmental Impact Report - Whittier Bridge/I-95 ...

Whittier Bridge/I-95 Improvement Project FEIR
Chapter 2.0: Response to Comments on the Environmental Assessment/Draft Environmental Impact Report
FRS-2: Because of the extended construction period, encompassing years 2013 through 2016, mitigation measures
are essential throughout the construction period so that, if an emergency required coastal region evacuation, whether
due to an accident at Seabrook Station, a hurricane, or other emergency, the existing six lanes for contraflow
evacuation would be reliably available.
Response: The comment is noted.
FRS-3: Roughly coincident with the period of Whittier Bridge replacement and I-95 widening in northeastern
Massachusetts, years 2013 through 2016, the epicycle of solar geomagnetic storms, roughly 10.5 years per cycle, is
expected to peak in the year 2013. Over the 50 year period 1958 -2008, as monitored by the U.S. Geological Survey,
the highest magnitude solar storms tend to occur near the solar maxima, in this cycle May 2013, or in the several
years around this peak.
Response: The comment is noted.
FRS-4: Solar geomagnetic storms place at risk the reliability of the U.S. electric grid, including the power required to
operate Seabrook Station and to provide make up water to cool spent fuel within pools at Seabrook Station, New
Hampshire.
Response: The comment is noted.
FRS-5: The Foundation for Resilient Societies has petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to augment
on-station backup power systems at all 104 U.S. licensed nuclear power reactors. … The Foundation has also
proposed specific cost-effective measures to reduce the risks of zirconium fires that could release significant
radioactive particles from Seabrook Station if backup power designed to operate through geomagnetic storms is not
available to operate water pumps to cool spent nuclear fuel. The Foundation has also proposed backup power to
better assure operation of hydrogen recombination equipment, to prevent explosions affecting reactor containment
systems as occurred at Fukushima Dai-ichi, Japan in March 2011.
Response: The comment is noted.
FRS-6: The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation cannot
prudently assume that the risks of an accident affecting the Seabrook Nuclear Station No.1 would be nonconsequential
during the concurrent reconstruction of the Interstate 95 John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge (2013-2016),
and the period of peak risks for solar geomagnetic storms, 2012-2016.
Response: The comment is noted.
FRS-7: At a public hearing on the environmental mitigation of the John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge Replacement
Project / Interstate 95 Widening Project held in Amesbury, Massachusetts on December 7, 2011, Whittier Bridge
Project Managers indicated a plan to utilize Staging Areas North and South of the Merrimack River and to minimize
the closure of existing I-95 lanes or the placement of construction-related equipment on the existing Whittier Bridge
driving lanes or the other to-be-reconstructed I-95 bridges during the four years of construction, years 2013 through
2016.
Response: The comment correctly notes that potential construction staging areas were discussed at
the public meeting in Amesbury on December 7, 2011. However, the comment fails to note that
MassDOT also stated that the majority of the construction work required for the project will be
completed ―off line,‖ or outside the existing travel lanes of I-95. The staged construction of the new
Whittier Bridge structures will be completed without the need for staging of construction equipment in
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