GARDINER — Two bridges in Gardiner are set for reconstruction next year, and work is underway to figure out how the project will affect residents, commuters and businesses in the area.
It’s not a small job.
The bridges, which cross the Cobbosseecontee Stream at Bridge Street and Maine Avenue, are expected to be replaced consecutively.
Ted Talbot, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the plan now is to advertise the contract for both bridges together in 2018 with construction to start on the Maine Avenue Bridge in 2018 and construction to start on the Bridge Street Bridge in 2019.
“We’re pretty confident in the time frame,” Talbot said Monday.
The Department of Transportation is expected to hold an informational public meeting in March, during which information about the bridge construction projects will be presented and residents and interested people will be able to give their input.
That will be followed by a formal public meeting a couple of months later, which is expected to deal with the public’s feedback from the earlier meeting.
Since last March, Gardiner’s Bridge Advisory Committee has been meeting regularly about the projects and their impact on Gardiner.
“We’re getting less theoretical and talking about more specifics,” said Mayor Thom Harnett, a member of the committee.
At last week’s meeting, the focus was on traffic and maintaining traffic flow through downtown Gardiner and the region during construction. The Department of Transportation has conducted some analyses of traffic in Gardiner to arrive at suggested detour routes.
District 2 City Councilor Pat Hart said a number of people walk to work in Gardiner, and there are people who live in the Highland Avenue neighborhood just west of Bridge Street, who walk to Hannaford grocery store or downtown, often with strollers, who would be affected by the closure of Bridge Street during construction.
Committee members are also concerned about the informal detour routes that city residents might take to avoid construction projects that will put pressure on neighborhood streets that are not intended to handle heavy traffic.
Jessica Lowell can be contacted at 621-5632 or at:
jlowell@centralmaine.com
Twitter: JLowellKJ
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