Sewall Wins Maine ASCE’s Kitty Breskin Project Award
James W. Sewall Company (Sewall) recently won the Maine ASCE’s Kitty Breskin Project Award for the Pearl Street Reconstruction project in Biddeford, Maine. The award is presented yearly for engineering projects showing innovation and contribution to the community in the same spirit as the late Kitty Breskin, P.E., a Maine DOT engineer and a past president of Maine ASCE.
The City of Biddeford had a vision to transform Pearl Street from a dead-end, poorly maintained, blighted street into a focal space that would revitalize the downtown area as a destination. Janine Murchison, PE, Sewall’s Project Manager Engineer, provided preliminary engineering, final design, bidding, and construction phase services for 900 linear feet between Lincoln Street and the Saco River.
The project created an inviting, safe space for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists to share. The western half of the roadway was widened, with “bump-outs” at cross walks for safer road crossing. Street lighting was added for the length of the roadway. The easterly half of the project, a dead end adjacent to the Saco River, was constructed as a Woonerf area, where the sidewalk and curb are flush with the street for ADA accessibility. (Woonerf is a Dutch term for a “living street,” or a shared space with traffic calming and low speed limits that allows pedestrians, bicyclists, and low-speed motor vehicles to share the space.)
In addition, the project included a full depth reconstruction of the street with nearly 1,600’ storm and underdrain pipe and associated catch basins; over 2,200’ of force main sewer lines and associated manholes; over 500’ of water mains; and over 20,200’ of concrete encased conduit and associated handholes/manholes. Shaw Brothers Construction of Gorham substantially completed the project on October 26, 2023, and a ribbon cutting was held on November 2, 2023.
Sewall’s parent company, Treadwell Franklin Infrastructure (TFIC) developed the Pearl Street Parking Garage, which complements the project.
Biddeford’s Mayor at the time of the ribbon cutting, Alan Casavant, summarized the meaning of the project best: “Pearl Street was once a road that led to a waste-to-energy plant that stunted the growth of our city. At that time, it was a place to stay far away from and a cause of embarrassment for those who remembered the days of a thriving downtown. With this project complete, we have a new vision for Pearl Street: a road that was designed with features specifically to make it easy for people to gather and celebrate together like we are today. Community members can proudly dine, shop, live, and make connections with their neighbors in the very place that they were once ashamed of.”
