KENNEBUNK — Five hundred Kennebunk Elementary School students, led by Miles the Turnpike Moose, crossed the Eastern Trail Bridge over I-95 Wednesday, at a ribbon cutting ceremony in celebration of its opening earlier this month.
Eastern Trail Alliance members and Maine Turnpike Authority employees cut the ribbon in front of an audience of students, teachers and parents to commemorate the $1.2 million bridge.
“We need places in our community where people can just get out(side),” said Peter Mills, MTA executive director, during an assembly in the KES gymnasium preceding the ceremony.
Mills said the bridge will be available to bicyclists and joggers for years to come, and that every time he drives under the bridge, he sees numerous adults and children using it.
The Eastern Trail Bridge crosses over the Maine Turnpike at mile 26.3, and is a part of the state’s 387-mile-long section of the 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway that stretches from Maine to Florida.
“I know parents who pick their kids up from school and right after walk the trails to the bridge,” said KES Principal Ryan Quinn, adding that use of the bridge will be implemented into gym classes.
Perhaps the most enjoyable part for students walking the quarter-mile to the bridge was being able to signal truckers to honk their horns as they passed underneath. Children sighed and “aw’ed” when cars or trucks passed by without honking, cheering when they did.
“I’m just thrilled that they’ve made this available for us to use,” said Barbara Thyng, a third-grade teacher at KES, while leading her students down the trail after everyone had crossed the bridge.
After a bagpiper performed a song for the estimated 700 attendees at the assembly, awards were given out by MTA Public Affairs Manager Dan Morin to those who contributed in the bridge’s construction.
The six people given awards were: Bob Hamblen, Eastern Trail Management District president.; Tony Barrett, trustee of the East Coast Greenway; Paul Koziell, counsel of the CPM Constructors, who built the bridge; Heather Harris, assistant vice president of community relations at Kennebunk Savings; Tim Cody of HNTB, who designed the bridge; and John Andrews, retired president and founder of the ETA.
Commenting on Andrews’ persistence and dedication for the last 15 years in seeing the bridge’s construction come to be, Hamblen gave Andrews his own photographic portrait in honor of his hard work.
“I would just like to the thank the hundreds, or even thousands, who made the bridge possible,” said Andrews, while accepting the portrait.
Morin also presented Quinn with northbound and southbound markers for the bridge, so that visitors will know if they’re heading toward or away from Maine.
Another bridge will be opened in late November or early December across Route 1 near Thornton Academy, connecting the Saco and Old Orchard Beach sections of the trail, according Hamblen.
Plans for the $80,000 Saco-OOB bridge project began in late May, Hamblen said. The bridge will be constructed out-of-state and dropped into position overnight on Oct. 25 by a crane.
Extensions of the trail costing $2.5 million will also be completed over the next month before the bridge is in place, Hamblen said.
When the trail is complete, it will span 60 miles in Maine, starting in Kittery and making its way through Kennebunk, ending in South Portland’s Bug Light Park.
The majority of funding for the I-95 bridge’s construction, which started in April, came from the MTA, according to Scott Tompkins, public relations manager of the MTA.
Surrounded by hundreds of children in the gym, Barrett told them that although it’s not quite finished, and you may have to walk on some roads, the trail will always be open if they decide they want to take a trip to other states.
“You can go to far away places on that trail,” he said.
— Staff Writer Matt Kiernan can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 326, or at mkiernan@journaltribune.com.
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