BATH

Work continues uninterrupted on the reconstruction of the Bath viaduct after it was closed to traffic last Tuesday.

“Traffic is flowing a lot smoother than we expected it would, and work is progressing as scheduled,” said Glenn Philbrook, resident engineer with the Maine Department of Transportation.

Reed & Reed Construction of Woolwich began work on the short segment of Route 1 that runs through Bath on Tuesday. While the viaduct is closed for the next several months, traffic is being diverted largely to Commercial Street and Leeman Highway. Traffic underneath the viaduct is closed for the most part, although Washington Street will remain open for cross traffic between downtown and Bath Iron Works.

“I think that traffic is moving very efficiently through the site,” said Andrew Deci, director of Planning and Development for Bath. “It exceeded our expectations.”

With no major hiccups during the first week of major operations, the project is on schedule. The $12 million project is slated to be completed by Memorial Day 2017. Due to the short time frame given to the company to rebuild the viaduct, construction work is ongoing day and night.

“People are starting to notice the noise at night,” said Deci. “It took 729 days to build the original bridge, and we’re giving this contractor 220 days to take that bridge down and to give us a new bridge. That precipitates night work. We’re trying to minimize the night work as much as possible, but it is going to be noisy for October and November, and then the demo will be done.”

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