STANDISH – The narrow and corroded 75-year-old bridge that crosses the Saco River in Steep Falls will likely be fixed or replaced, worrying neighbors concerned about traffic speed in the area.

According to Mark Parlin, project manager for the state Department of Transportation, the Route 11 bridge that connects Steep Falls with Limington and is undergoing inspection this week, has received preliminary engineering money to determine how best to deal with the corroded superstructure and to evaluate the condition of the concrete abutments and deck.

Parlin said the study should be completed within two or three months, at which time the department will issue its determination for whether the bridge needs a replacement or rehabilitation.

Both plans are making people nervous. About 25 nearby residents attended a preliminary public hearing in late July. According to Michael Blanck, a Standish town councilor who lives beside the bridge, residents of the densely populated stretch of Main Street on the Steep Falls side are worried that widening the nearby bridge will lead to increased speeds along the road.

“Right now, Main Street is a very narrow road, the speed limit is 25 mph, and we have a lot of speeding going on over there. Besides cars, the logging trucks are probably the worst offenders,” Blanck said. “The concern we have is if they do replace or refurbish the bridge, which would include widening it, the concern is we’d have a lot more traffic, primarily truck traffic, going through the village of Steep Falls.”

Blanck said many children live along Main Street, which has homes fronting the roadway. He said truckers, mostly from bottled water and logging companies, don’t always adhere to the 25 mph speed limit.

“It’s always been a concern, but with the possible replacement, they’d obviously have to put something in that’s wider, and we’re just concerned we’re going to have a lot more increased traffic,” Blanck said.

Blanck said he wanted to be clear he was speaking as a Steep Falls resident, not as a town councilor. He said the council has yet to take a position on the bridge project.

Neil Korsen, another resident in the neighborhood, hopes the public process will lead to traffic-calming measures in the village that would force truckers and motorists to slow down through the busy neighborhood.

“It seems that building a new bridge that would be wider and that would probably take the current situation and make it worse may not be the best solution for our neighborhood,” Korsen said. “Some combination of repair on a smaller scale, changing traffic patterns and calming the traffic could probably maintain that bridge and the neighborhood.”

Standish Town Manager Gordon Billington said the town and residents have long heard complaints about Main Street speeds and have reached out to trucking companies asking them to rein in their drivers.

“Residents have worked with Poland Spring, for example, to bring their truckers into a more disciplined way of passing through the village, and I think Poland Spring has been very responsive,” Billington said. “They gave a phone contact when [neighbors observe] had a truck operator not driving properly at the right speed.”

Billington said the bridge construction project could mean a 13-mile detour for motorists. Recent traffic studies peg traffic at 2,200 vehicles a day.

The bridge is 220 feet long and 22 feet wide from curb to curb. There is a pedestrian sidewalk that is also used by snowmobilers in the winter, as part of the state’s established trail system.

Having just begun preliminary engineering, Parlin is nowhere near determining whether the bridge, built by the Boston Bridge Works company in 1937, needs a complete replacement.

“Both options are on the table at this point, so I couldn’t say one way or the other,” he said. “We need to get some cost estimates and figure out how long we would think a rehabilitation repair would last and what’s cost effective, and cost out the price of a bridge replacement and make our decisions upon those things as well as public input.”

The public will be asked to weigh in again once engineering is complete. The Maine Legislature has yet to fund the restoration project, Parlin added.

The Route 11 bridge was last replaced after the flood of 1936 wiped out many bridges along the Saco River, Parlin said. The Bonny Eagle Covered Bridge, which crossed the river near Bar Mills on Route 35, was washed away as well and replaced by a similar truss the same year. Last year, the department began replacing that bridge. That project will be complete in November, Parlin said.

The Route 11 bridge over the Saco River in Steep Falls is 75 years old, built in the Depression era by Boston Bridge Works. The state is conducting a feasibility study for replacing or rehabbing the aging steel truss bridge due to corrosion. Staff photos by John Balentine