A drawn-out legal battle and inflation sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic caused the projected costs of replacing the main bridge linking Topsham and Brunswick to soar.

The Maine Department of Transportation began the process of improving the Route 201 crossing between Brunswick and Topsham, better known as the Frank J. Wood Bridge, in 2014.

Construction company Reed & Reed Inc. of Woolwich works to lay the steel beams of the new replacement bridge for the more than 90-year-old Frank J. Wood Bridge on Friday, Jan. 24. Paul Bagnall/The Times Record

In 2017, the conceptual construction estimate for a basic bridge replacement came in around $13 million — which did not include some of the amenities that ended up in the final design. The state ultimately awarded a $49.9 million contract to Reed & Reed Inc. of Woolwich in February 2023, with construction starting two months later.

“We started experiencing a super-heated construction bidding environment in 2019. The pandemic exacerbated that,” said Paul Merrill, MDOT spokesman.

According to Merrill, the only other bidder was Cianbro Corp., which said it could replace the bridge for $83.8 million.

Many of the increased costs stemmed from a lengthy legal standoff that started in 2019 when Friends of the Frank J. Wood Bridge sued, alleging both MDOT and the Federal Highway Administration relied on inaccurate information to inflate the projected costs. MDOT denied those claims. While that legal process played out, construction costs continued to increase, driving up the project’s price tag.

The lawsuit eventually found its way to the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which sided with MDOT.