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

EEA#14427 DEIR Certificate December 30, 2011
directly related to whether 1-95 is widened to eight lanes or remains at six lanes within the
project corridor. The DEIR further states that good highway design, ensuring public safety, and
compliance with current FHWA standards requires additional impervious area for additional
travel lanes and widened highway shoulders.
Similarly, the bridge design alternatives were compared for engineering and
environmental factors including: structural/redundancy; highway/profile impact; inspection and
maintenance; schedule impacts; constructability; environmental; cost; aesthetics; and Section
106 criteria. The evaluation concluded that the steel network tied-arch bridge with steel-box
girder approaches was the highest rated of all the bridge types evaluated. The Preferred
Alternative discussed and analyzed in the DEIR incorporates the construction of new network
tied-arch bridges over the Merrimack River.
In addition, the Preferred Alternative includes a shared-use path from the Exit 57 Parkand-Ride
Lot in Newburyport, across the Merrimack River on the new 1-95 northbound bridge,
and continues north in Amesbury paralleling 1-95 to a point south of Exit 58 in Amesbury where
the path will split into two short legs. A Shared Use Path Feasibility Study included various
alignment alternatives for the path, and included variations on the origination and destination
points of the path, alternative east-to-west connections between Maudslay State Park and
Moseley Woods, and four alternative Merrimack River crossing alternatives.
Growth/Regional Planning
The DEIR indicates that the project is consistent with relevant local and regional land use
plans. The DEIR also address the project's consistency with the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts' Sustainable Development Principles and Executive Order 385 (Planning for
Growth). In addition, the DEIR describes how there is no significant impact to the 100-year
floodplain or the regulatory floodway. In compliance with federal Executive Order 11988 (Flood
Management), constructing the Preferred Alternative would avoid any long- and short-term
adverse impacts to floodplain. In accordance with FHWA regulations on encroachments in
floodplains, there would be no longitudinal and/or significant encroachments to the base (100­
year) floodplain, and no adverse effects to the base floodplain. The DEIR indicates that there is
no practical alternative to constructing the new 1-95 crossing with the 100-year floodplain. Any
bridge crossing the Merrimack River would place piers and abutments within the 100-year
floodplain.
Land Use and Alteration
Because the proposed bridge and roadway improvements would be located within the
existing right-of-way (ROW), the Preferred Alternative would not have a direct impact on land
use. Based on conceptual plans, the DEIR provides the following breakdown for land alteration
associated with the proposed project:
• New roadway (including breakdown/shoulder lanes): 14.3 acres
• Stormwater drainage basins: 4.3 acres
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