Architect Bill Warner owns William D. Warner Architects and Planners in Exeter. His firm undertook design work for the bridge carrying Interstate 195 over the Providence River. Part of the Iway project that moved Interstate 195 south, the bridge was an effort by a number of people, including Warner, Patty Steere and David Freeman of the Maguire Group Engineers, and Kazem Farhoumand, chief engineer for the R.I. Department of Transportation, who oversaw the design, funding and construction of the bridge.
Warner recently took some time to speak with Providence Business News about the project that won a Grand Conceptor award from the American Council of Engineering Companies Massachusetts and Rhode Island chapter.
PBN: How did it feel to win?
WARNER: Of course we were all excited with the win. However no single event can top the summer of 2006 when a small fleet of tug boats towed the bridge up Narragansett Bay from the construction site at Quonset to the hurricane barrier in Providence where the 400-foot long bridge was slowly lowered into place upon six granite piers by the lowering of the tide.
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PBN: What is it, exactly, that makes the bridge so special?
WARNER: There are several special aspects. The rising arch can be seen from down the Bay as a marker to the entrance to Old Harbor at the three hurricane barrier gates. The light airy, graceful appearance due to the engineer being the first in this country to use a “network” arch in which cables are interwoven diagonally. And the blue arch signals the driver from the south that he is nearing the turnoff to points east.
PBN: Can you tell us about the pedestrian bridge crossing the Providence River that you are also designing and what it might look like?
WARNER: The same team is currently designing a pedestrian bridge that will utilize the granite-clad piers once the existing Interstate 195 bridge is torn down. Currently three different bridge types are being proposed for evaluation, one a simple graceful bridge in the tradition of getting folks from one side to the other, another that features a kind of activity platform in the center of the river and a third that is a combination of the two. A prime goal of the bridge is to connect the East Side, Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design with downtown and the Jewelry District. [Also called the Knowledge District.]
PBN: The Iway project has involved a lot of bridge work. Has it been a bridge designer’s dream come true?
WARNER: We’re very fortunate to be part of such a good design team under the umbrella of DOT, whose objective is excellence in function and aesthetics.
PBN: Besides the pedestrian bridge, any other bridge projects under way?
WARNER: Last year we were asked to join Parsons Brinckerhoff as Architects for the I-95 Whittier Replacement Bridge crossing the Merrimac River just north of Newburyport, Mass.
