WESTBROOK – Despite a plea from Westbrook’s mayor, the state has cut down some landmark elm trees to make way for bridge reconstruction.
Workers are taking the first steps in replacing the pair of bridges on Cumberland Street, near the main gates of the Sappi Fine Paper mill. The work includes erecting temporary bypass bridges to re-route traffic around the Cumberland Mills bridges while workers replace them.
But to do that, the Department of Transportation first had to make room for relocated power lines and poles. That meant taking down a number of large trees growing by the side of the road, including some growing on the property next to The Elms, a bed-and-breakfast inn across the street from the mill. The inn was first built by S.D. Warren as a retreat for visiting company executives, and is now privately owned.
Word of the possible cuttings led to some complaints to Mayor Colleen Hilton’s office, prompting Hilton to send a letter to the transportation department back in October, asking the state to work with Scott Balfour, the inn’s owner.
“The innkeeper and property owner is very concerned about the visual impact of having the power lines and poles on this side of the street with its significant historical value and more residential nature,” the mayor wrote. “The Elms is an asset of historical and cultural significance to the City of Westbrook, and I respectfully request you work with the innkeeper and property owner of The Elms to maintain the power lines and poles generally in their current location on the north side of the Cumberland Mills Bridge.”
The state took the trees down anyway.
Ted Talbot, a spokesman for the department, said the project involved taking down eight trees total, four of which were on The Elms property. Talbot said state officials used the right of eminent domain to take the trees, but did make efforts to satisfy Balfour.
“They talked to him many times,” Talbot said.
Talbot declined to say exactly how much the state offered Balfour to compensate for the taking of the property, but said, “He did get compensated.”
Attempts to reach Balfour for comment were unsuccessful.
Approximately 15,000 vehicles use the bridges daily. State officials said the bridges were built in 1954, and typically have a 50-to-75-year lifespan. Normal wear and tear led to cracks and a large hole appearing in the bridge deck – the concrete pad the pavement rests on – in one of the Cumberland Mills bridges.
State workers discovered the damage by accident late at night last Oct. 4, when they visited the bridges to conduct some routine maintenance and noticed a sinkhole in the pavement in the center of one of them. Within a day, workers had patched the hole, but state officials rushed to get plans in place to replace the bridges.
Talbot said the department expects to finish the project by December 2013. The state is budgeting between $5.5 million and $6.5 million for the work.
Bridge work on Cumberland Street required taking elm trees by
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