After three days of delays, a visit from the Federal Highway Administrator and spirited public input, demolition began Feb. 8-9 on a key crossing between New Hampshire and Maine.

During a 72-hour window authorized by the Coast Guard to interrupt shipping, a design-build team led by Archer-Western Constractors used barges to float out the 300-ft-long center span of the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth, N.H. during high tide. Through March, the towers and 40-ton concrete counterweights of the lift bridge will be removed using a 500-ton crane.