State transportation officials announced Wednesday that they will likely delay replacing the Interstate 295 overpass over Veranda Street in Portland because of a national shortage of certain construction materials.

The overpass was to be replaced from Oct. 22-25, which would have required closing I-295 in that area for those four days and closing Veranda Street and Route 1 from Oct. 18-25. A replacement overpass has been under construction adjacent to the existing one, and was to be moved into place on those dates.

An average of 53,000 vehicles crossed the Veranda Street bridge each day before the pandemic, according to the state.

Now it appears likely the overpass won’t be replaced until next spring, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.

Last weekend, crews discovered some of the geofoam blocks that will make up the new bridge’s foundation were damaged. There is a national shortage of the resin used to manufacture the blocks to proper specifications, making it unlikely that replacement blocks can be found by Oct. 22.

“Challenges involving the lightweight geofoam fill being used on this project require more time to make sure the work meets our safety requirements,” MDOT Chief Engineer Joyce Taylor said in a statement. “A national resin shortage is slowing our ability to obtain the additional material we’ll need in order to get the site ready for the accelerated bridge construction process.”

Taylor said the project is still on schedule to be completed before the end of 2022. She said the state and its contractor, Cianbro Corporation, had already agreed to a backup installation date of mid-April 2022 if the October dates could not be met.

The state chose accelerated bridge construction for the $20.8 million project to shorten the time that traffic would be disrupted – conventional construction methods could have caused traffic delays lasting months or even years.

The Veranda Street Bridge has carried I-295 traffic over Veranda Street (Route 1) since 1961, and after more than 60 years of heavy use, the bridge has deteriorated. A 2017 inspection determined that it is in satisfactory to poor condition and is structurally deficient, according to the state.

State engineers decided the most cost-effective solution was to replace the old bridge with a new, single span bridge with wider shoulders and improved visibility.

The contractor will use a self-propelled modular transporter to move the new bridge into place. The transporters are used to transport massive objects that cannot be moved by trucks – NASA has used them to move space shuttle components. The Portland bridge project will mark the first time the state will use one.

The project also includes improvements to traffic flow on Veranda Street, which includes north- and southbound ramps connecting traffic with I-295. The existing, confusing road layout has led to an increase in vehicle crashes there, according to the MDOT. Veranda Street is being reconfigured and reconstructed as part of the project.

Taylor, in a telephone interview, said the state won’t rush the project and will wait until April if that is how long it takes to receive the geofoam blocks that meet the state’s engineering specifications. “We are going to do it right, not fast,” Taylor said.

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