At a lunchtime meeting of the Naples Downtown Revitalization on last Wednesday, local residents and business owners gathered at the Naples Town Offices to listen to comments from Dean Lessard of the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) on a proposed overlay of the Route 302 corridor. The overlay would resurface a portion of the road that extends from the junction of Route 35 in Naples to Route 117 in Bridgton.
As those in attendance munched away at a buffet lunch prepared by Keith Neubert of The Inn at Long Lake, Lessard laid out the details of the overlay and answered questions from the audience.
“The scope of the project is an overlay,” Lessard said. “For the most part, a paver will go by, putting a shim coat down, filling the ruts and cracks and then we come back with three-quarter inch surface on top of that.”
Just over $800,000 has been allocated for the 7.13 mile overlay, said Leisard. Because the Route 302 is built to modern standards, only a resurfacing is needed for upkeep of the road. If, however, catch basins and drainage are not up to par, the MDOT will repair them, said Lessard.
One resident said that the state had neglected to make the sidewalks handicapped accessible when the road was built years ago and asked if the MDOT would be reshaping the curbing to allow for more accessibilty. Lessard said that the overlay would not include “curbing tip downs,” or ramps leading to a sidewalk.
“If we were to rebuild the road today, it is now a requirement,” Lessard said. “We would put in granite tip downs to make them ADA accessible. In an overlay type project like this one, that would not be included.”
Leisard said that there was not enough funding in the project to adjust the curbing, but suggested that the town pursue federal grant money for needed accessibility.
The discussion then changed focus as Carl Talbot, manager of the Songo River Queen II, asked if the MDOT was going to leave the approach to the causeway bridge unpaved to allow for construction of the new bridge.
“When we were here six, seven weeks ago with the bridge development people, we were told that the whole elevation of that bridge and the approach, particularly as you come westerly, is going to be changed,” Talbot said.
Lessard asked if the bridge coordinators had talked about a schedule for the bridge construction. Brett Doney of Lakes Region Development Council responded by saying that construction could start as early as the fall of 2006 if the project receives all its funding.
“The bridge is funded, but it’s not funded with enough money to actually build it,” Doney said.
Doney went on to say that a new transportation bill in the U.S. Congress could provide more funding for the new bridge. With the funding now available, MDOT is going forward with preliminary engineering of the bridge.
While designs for the bridge are still in the works, a single lift “leaf bascule” drawbridge is proposed to replace the old swing bridge. The MDOT may widen the boat passage and raise the bridge’s elevation to allow for boating traffic to pass easily under, thus reducing the number of times the bridge must be drawn open.
Depending on the design, Doney said 500 feet of approach would be needed to accommodate every foot of elevation.
“If the bridge gets raised three or four feet, we’re looking at possibly 2,000 feet out on both sides of the bridge,” Doney said. “So it could have a big impact on not only the overlay project.”
The bridge construction could have an impact on nearby marinas and other businesses as well as private residences, Doney explained. This raised many concerns from those in attendance. Lessard assured them that access to businesses and homes would not be blocked during the bridge or overlay projects.
“Normally on our construction projects, we require, in our contract with the contractors, that they maintain access to all the businesses and homes,” Lessard said.
Lessard said he would try to schedule the road overlay in coordination with the bridge construction project. Doney, who has helped to organize and facilitate the revitalization effort in Naples, is likewise working with the MDOT to tailor small improvements along the causeway to the construction of the new bridge.
Meetings for the Naples Downtown Revitalization project take place at noon on every third Wednesday of the month at the Naples Town Office and are open to the public.
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