Today, Feb. 15, is the day commuters have been dreading – the start of nine months without the Stroudwater Street bridge.
Drivers who normally use the bridge to commute between Westbrook and Portland will be forced to take an alternative route for at least nine months while the bridge is torn down and replaced with a new bridge.
The Maine Turnpike Authority, which owns the bridge spanning the Turnpike has said the closure is necessary to ensure the project is completed as quickly as possible, minimizing the inconvenience to local commuters. The Authority expects construction to be completed and the bridge reopened to traffic by Nov. 15.
Dan Paradee, public affairs manager for the Turnpike Authority, said the bridge will close as scheduled today, Feb. 15, before the start of the morning commute. “Everything seems to be going as planned,” he said.
Paradee said preparation work has been going on at the site for several weeks now. Construction crews have already begun installing protective shielding on the underside of the bridge to protect cars traveling on the Turnpike from falling concrete. Paradee said once demolition work begins, it won’t take crews long to remove the bridge.
“In another two or three weeks, that bridge will no longer exist,” he said.
The closure of the bridge upset some Westbrook residents this summer. Their complaints initially led the Authority to consider leaving at least one lane open during construction.
In July, after hearing multiple complaints from Westbrook residents, the Authority decided to keep one lane of traffic on the bridge open during reconstruction. The Authority had favored keeping the entire bridge closed during construction. To keep one lane open would add $400,000 and at least six months to the construction time, going from a year to 18 months, Turnpike Authority officials said at the time.
In September, the Authority’s board of directors reversed the earlier decision and decided to close the entire bridge, after hearing complaints from Portland officials who wanted the projected to be completed in a year, rather than 18 months. Following that vote, the Authority developed a revised construction schedule that accelerated the project, reducing the bridge closure from a year to nine months.
While the bridge is closed, commuters who use the bridge need to find an alternative route. Commuters are encouraged to use the Jetport Connector Road, Congress Street, Rand Road and Brighton Avenue, as well as the Turnpike’s Jetport and Westbrook-Rand Road interchanges.
For more information on the bridge closure, call the Turnpike Authority at 871-7771, or visit www.maineturnpike.com.
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