Sylmar-based civil construction contractor Tutor Perini Corp. has announced a trio of project awards in recent weeks.
The largest of the awards – for a $1.3 billion bridge replacement project – was announced July 2. Tutor Perini said that a joint venture it formed with Torrington, Connecticut-based O&G Industries Inc. was awarded the contract from Washington D.C.-based National Railroad Passenger Corp., better known as Amtrak, to replace a bridge over the Connecticut River between the towns of Old Saybrook and Old Lyme in Connecticut.
The original bridge, which opened in 1907, is 1,500 feet long and is one of several drawbridges along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor route. Because of design limitations at the time, train speeds are capped at 45 miles per hour.
The replacement bridge, which will be located just south of the current bridge, will have higher clearance capacity for barge traffic underneath and will be capable of handling train speeds of up to 70 mph. It will also have the latest in electrical and signal technology.
Work is expected to begin later this summer, with substantial completion anticipated in 2031.
Nearly $827 million of the funding for the $1.3 billion project is coming from a Federal Railroad Administration grant as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Tutor Perini is a 30% partner in the joint venture with O&G Industries; its share will be counted in the company’s second quarter backlog figure.
Just two weeks prior to this announcement, Tutor Perini announced that one of its subsidiaries, Lunda Construction Co. of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, had received another bridge replacement contract. This one was from the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, to replace the Kellogg/Third Street bridge in that city. The contract award was valued at $53.6 million; Tutor Perini said the award will be added to the company’s backlog for the second quarter.
The new bridge will have 13 spans totaling over 2,100 feet in length. It will accommodate four lanes of traffic (two in each direction) and a barrier-separated trail on each side for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Work is expected to begin later this summer, with substantial completion anticipated in the fall of 2027.
Finally, on July 9, Tutor Perini announced that its Perini Management Services subsidiary had received a $48.6 million contract from the National Park Service to rehabilitate one of the most infamous prison buildings in the nation: the Alcatraz Main Prison Building on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
The building, situated on the island’s main hilltop, was commissioned by the U.S. Army as a new prison to replace the Gold Rush-era prison barracks; it opened in 1911. It later was designated as a maximum-security prison known as “The Rock” that housed some of the nation’s most egregious criminals. Over the years, there were 14 escape attempts that became the stuff of legend.
The prison on Alcatraz was shuttered in 1963; a decade later, the prison property was transferred to the National Park Service and reopened as a tourist attraction; last year the site drew 1.4 million visitors. Today, the century-old building has deteriorated substantially, including the decay of concrete walls.
Work was expected to begin this month with substantial completion anticipated in the summer of 2027. The contract value was added to Tutor Perini’s second quarter backlog.
