JEFFERSON — The culvert that collapsed in Jefferson last week is expected to cost just under $1.5 million to repair and a segment of Route 17 between Augusta and Rockland will be closed for around three weeks while construction is underway.

Repairs to the collapsed culvert, near Pealsee’s Quick Stop, are expected to cost $1,496,111 and will close Route 17 until March 24.

Officials at the Maine Department of Transportation said the cause of the collapse is still unknown, but that it was due to be repaired.

“We had it slated to be repaired in the three-year plan, so we have been doing routine inspections,” said interim DOT spokesperson Damian Veilleux. “We noticed its decline and that it was time to get fixed, anyway. I think it went ahead of the best slated plans, so we accelerated the time table.”

Veilleux said the original pipe will be replaced with a pipe that is 14 feet wide and 6 feet tall with a precast concrete box culvert. The opening will be 84 square feet, compared to the original culvert’s opening of 64 square feet. The repair will increase the expected life value of the culvert by 100 years and will be larger to “increase the resiliency of the infrastructure,” he said.

T Buck Construction of Turner has already started working on the repairs. It is the same company that was slated to do the planned repairs.

Drivers will be instructed to take the detour of Route 32, Route 126 and Route 220 to avoid Route 17 in Jefferson. The detour takes drivers an additional 11 miles.

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