Harry W. Nice Memorial/Senator Thomas “Mac” Middleton Bridge: Winner of a 2024 PCI Design Award
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Harry W. Nice Memorial/Senator Thomas “Mac” Middleton Bridge: Winner of a 2024 PCI Design Award

Heidelberg Materials supplied cement, fly ash and slag for the Harry W. Nice Memorial/Senator Thomas 'Mac' Middleton Bridge, winner of the 2024 PCI Design Award “Transportation Award: Best Bridge with a Main Span from 76-200 Feet.”

Located in Maryland, this impressive structure spans the Potomac River, connecting Newburg, Maryland, with Dahlgren, Virginia. The bridge replaces the original span built in 1940, addressing modern traffic demands while enhancing safety and reliability. Designed to improve regional connectivity and traffic flow, the bridge features a dual-span and is approximately 1.9 miles long, making it one of the longest continuous over-water spans in the United States. It offers four 12-ft-wide lanes, along with a center median and shoulders, significantly reducing congestion and facilitating access for maintenance and wide-load vehicles.

The use of precast concrete improved worker safety by permitting many installation tasks to take place on the ground. Precast elements were designed to provide a simple and repetitive structure, accelerating the construction process and allowing the bridge to open to traffic two months ahead of schedule, in October 2022.

“Heidelberg Materials is proud to have supplied this important transportation project. Our cement and supplementary cementitious materials were critical in the production of the high performance structural concrete mixes used on the Nice-Middleton Bridge. Our materials connect communities, and we dedicate ourselves to being a vital supplier to the region’s infrastructure projects,” said Larry Rowland, Sustainability Market Manager, Heidelberg Materials.

Watch the PCI award video here.

Project Team:

  • Owner: Maryland Transportation Authority
  • Engineer of Record: AECOM
  • General Contractor: Skanska-Corman-Mclean JV
  • Precast Concrete Producer: Coastal Precast Systems
  • Concrete Supplier: Chaney Enterprises
  • Cement and Slag Cement Supplier: Heidelberg Materials
  • Fly Ash Supplier: SEFA (rebranded to Heidelberg Materials January 2, 2025)