Bridge Lift Span to Leave City Wednesday

The Cape Cod barge is scheduled to transport the Memorial Bridge lift span out of the city on Wednesday around noon, according to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

In an e-mail, Keith Cota, the DOT project manager for the Memorial Bridge replacement project, wrote that officials with Archer Western Contractors informed the state agency the lift span will be transported to Massachusetts between noon and 12:30 p.m. Three to four tugboats will escort the barge out of Portsmouth Harbor.

Cota said the barge was being inspected by the Coast Guard on Tuesday afternoon to be sure it is safe for travel.

"If given the OK, it should leave tomorrow at the given time," he wrote.

It is not clear where the barge will take the Memorial Bridge lift span. It may end up at the Quincy (Mass.) Shipyard or at the Schnitzer Recycling facility in Everett, Mass., where it will be sold for scrap iron.

According to the National Weather Service, the high temperature on Wednesday will be 43 degrees and it will be mostly cloudy.

Some of the best places to watch the Memorial Bridge lift span leave Portsmouth will be from Prescott Park, Badgers Island in Kittery, Maine, Four Tree Island and Fort Constitution in New Castle.