WOOLWICH — Work is underway on a $33.5 million roadway and bridge replacement on U.S. Route 1 that will impact summer traffic.
The project in Woolwich calls for replacing the so-called Station 46 bridge, a span near the Taste of Maine restaurant that carries Route 1 over railroad tracks and a marsh.
To do that, Reed & Reed Construction is building a detour that runs alongside the existing roadway.
Once the detour opens, traffic should continue to keep moving smoothly along a stretch of highway used by nearly 19,000 vehicles daily, but speed limits will be reduced.
“Maintaining safe and efficient passage through this area is extremely important to the economy. Our work to replace this bridge was designed to minimize traffic impacts,” said Devan Eaton, project manager for the Maine Department of Transportation.
The temporary road and bridges will have to be durable because construction could take until November 2024 to be completed.
The project calls for raising U.S. Route 1 approximately 5 feet to address flooding concerns and sea level rise, along with a new 619-foot bridge and a separate 150-foot span.
The Station 46 Bridge that will be replaced is one of more than 300 in Maine that are deemed to be structurally deficient, according to the MDOT. It was built in 1933 and widened in 1980.
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