The Maine Department of Transportation plans a total replacement of Salmon Falls Bridge over the Saco River between Buxton and Hollis on Route 202. File photo
The Maine Department of Transportation’s latest plan for the Salmon Falls Bridge between Buxton and Hollis calls for a full replacement that is expected to take about seven months to build.
The $8 million reconstruction of the Route 202/4 bridge over the Saco River, expected to start in 2025 at the earliest, will shut down a section of Route 202 and detour traffic onto Route 4A through Bar Mills Village.
The replacement will be 32 feet wide with 11-foot travel lanes and 5-foot shoulders instead of sidewalks. The 200-foot span will eliminate the two piers in the river.
The new bridge also will have 4-foot railings, a foot higher than those on the bridge now, to deter people from jumping from the bridge into the river.
“It prevents running across the road and jumping,” project engineer Devan Eaton said Tuesday.
Several years ago, a youth was hospitalized after being struck by a pickup truck while running out from behind a tractor trailer on the 26-foot-wide bridge.
Earlier plans had called for replacing just the bridge deck and installing higher railings, but additional needs arose during a reassessment of that plan.
The current bridge was constructed in 1948 and MDOT said it is in poor condition and too narrow, making pedestrian and bicycling traffic dangerous on a highly-used truck route.
An update on the bridge replacement can be viewed at bit.ly/3RMICi6. Comments can also be sent to Eaton at 624-3458 or emailed to devan.c.eaton@maine.gov.
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