KENNEBUNK – The Maine Department of Transportation plans to spend an estimated $3.67 million to replace Days Mill Bridge, a piece of infrastructure on Route 35 that was originally constructed in 1932 and needs repairs.
The location of Days Mill Bridge, which is near the Kennebunk-Arundel town line on Route 35. Courtesy image
The bridge itself is located in Kennebunk, but is very close to the town line, so the project will impact both Kennebunk and Arundel, according to Ashley Stephens, a design engineer for the project who works for the engineering firm HNTB.
During a public presentation about the project that was posted online, Maine DOT Senior Project Manager Devan Eaton introduced Stephens, who gave an overview of the preliminary design for the new bridge.
Residents had the chance to enter a comment on the project by March 4. Eaton did not respond by deadline to questions about the number of comments received, or the nature of the public comments.
The bridge crosses the Kennebunk River on Route 35 (Alewive Road) approximately .2 miles above Days Mills Road.
The existing structure is a single-span, concrete T-beam with a concrete deck. Condition of the concrete deck is “poor,” which doesn’t mean the deck is unsafe, but that it’s in need of some repairs, said Stephens. The superstructure condition is “fair.”
Currently, the roadway on the bridge is two 11-foot lanes, with 6-inch shoulders. The proposed new bridge will still have 11-foot lanes.
During the presentation, Stephens showed pictures of what the bridge looks like from below. The south abutment structure has some cinder blocks missing, and the underside of the deck has “quite a bit of cracking and staining coming through,” said Stephens.
There is also a house at the northwest corner of the bridge with a driveway that is very close to the bridge.
When coming up with design solutions, Stephens said her team considered traffic management, property impacts, utilities, environmental impacts, constructability and schedule duration. They considered either replacing or just rehabbing the bridge, but settled on bridge replacement, which would extend the bridge’s life for 75 years. Rehabbing it would have extended the bridge’s life for 40 years.
The new bridge will be a concrete Northeast Extreme Tee (NEXT) Beam bridge, according to Stephens. The bridge is also going to be constructed partially off alignment to the east, in order to enhance “roadway geometrics.”
How will it impact traffic?
Existing traffic data shows that roughly 4,200 vehicles cross this bridge every day, and looking ahead that number could increase to 5,000 a day. The speed limit of the road is 40 mph, and there has been one crash in the past three years along the roadway. Stephens said she thinks the roadway geometric improvements baked into the plan could help prevent that from happening in future.
For managing traffic during the project, they evaluated having an off-site traffic detour, a temporary bridge, or managing traffic on-site with staged construction. They have recommended an offsite detour with a full bridge closure, which would result in the shortest construction schedule.
The proposed detour route is along I-95 and Route 111, and would add an estimated additional 13 minutes of travel time to get from Arundel to Kennebunk and don’t need to take Route 35 specifically, said Stephens.
Traveling from one end of the bridge to the other, the whole length of the detour, would take about 27 minutes, she added.
As of the release of the video presentation, HNTB was completing final designs, with the aim of advertising the project in fall 2024.
Construction on the bridge is set to be completed in the summer of 2026.
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