BATH

The replacement of the Bath Viaduct began in earnest in the fall of 2016. In October, the Viaduct was shut down completely by the Department of Transportation and traffic was diverted mainly to Commercial Street and Leeman Highway, which run parallel. Reed & Reed Construction of Woolwich will be working day and night for parts of the year in order to complete the job in 220 days — less than half the time taken to construct the original Viaduct.

On April 4, a sports utility vehicle crashed over the side of the Leeman Highway Extension overpass and landed on a pickup truck below on Monday.

The driver of the 2003 Mercury that tumbled off the viaduct, Melissa Medina, 37, of Windham, was driving south on Route 1 on the viaduct when the vehicle struck the guardrails and fell from the overpass. The Mercury landed on its roof onto the bed of a Ford F150 pickup truck operated by Roy Ordway, 60, of Bath.

Medina was extricated and transported to Maine Medical Center in Portland with non-life threatening injuries. Her 12-year-old son was also extricated and transported to Maine Medical with non-life threatening injuries.

Ordway was not injured.

The viaduct has since been removed and a new overpass system is under construction. The $12 million project is slated to be complete by May of 2017.

RSU 1

In 2016, Regional School

Unit 1 selected Wing Farm as the location of the new Morse High School in Bath. The school district has obtained an option on the property from the City of Bath and is working with West Bath on certain property issues. The district is, however, moving forward with the design process. RSU 1 will be holding a straw poll in early 2017 to see if the community supports the site, and later in the year the towns that make up RSU 1 will vote on a bond to help fund the new school.

Art projects

Two major art projects were undertaken in Bath in 2016. In July, Main Street Bath unveiled a new mural on the concrete wall at the corner of Vine and Front streets. Entitled “Spirit of Bath, City of Ships,” the mural depicts a number of scenes evoking the city’s shipbuilding history and merchant character. Work also began on giving the pond and landscape surrounding the Zorach Fountain in City Park a facelift. While the Friends of Zorach Fountain worked on restoring the fountain itself in prior years, the group has now enlisted landscape designer Mark Jorgensen to address drainage issues and make aesthetic improvements to the area. Jorgensen and contractors will work throughout the winter to complete the project by May of 2017.

Medical marijuana comes to town

Wellness Connections of Maine, which operates half of the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries, relocated their Thomaston dispensary to Bath in 2016. The Bath dispensary is the only dispensary that can serve medical marijuana patients living in Waldo, Lincoln, Knox and Sagadahoc counties. Wellness Connection has not declared whether it will enter the recreational marijuana industry following the passage of Question 1 in November.

In November, Bath voters approved a bond issue to upgrade the city’s landfill. Without the upgrade, the landfill is expected to be filled in 2017. The $3.8 million bond allows the city to expand the landfill’s capacity according to plan and extend its life an additional 12 years.

Bath Iron Works

Bath Iron Works experienced disappointment in 2016, but will be entering 2017 with new leadership and a new Navy administration to work with.

Despite attempts to cut costs through contentious negotiations with BIW’s largest union in 2015 and outsourcing some work, the shipyard was unable to secure a much needed contract to build nine Offshore Patrol Cutters for the Coast Guard. That contract would have allowed the shipyard to maintain a steadier workload as work is completed on the remaining two Zumwaltclass destroyers.

In October, the US Navy commissioned the USS Zumwalt, the first of three Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers being built by BIW. The destroyer, which cost approximately $4 billion to construct, is the Navy’s most advanced surface combatant, with stealth capabilities, an unique electric propulsion system and a reduced crew size.

Following its departure from Bath in September, the Zumwalt faced a number of minor setbacks. In Norfolk, Virginia, crew members discovered an engineering casualty involving the propulsion system. While the vessel was repaired before its commissioning in October, it later broke down while passing through the Panama Canal and had to be towed through for repairs. It has since arrived at its homeport in San Diego.

2017 will look quite different for the shipyard. As reported in The Times Record, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s desire for a 350-ship Navy carried an explicit promise of additional work for BIW. A Navy force assessment released in December expresses the need for 16 additional large surface combatants to be built in the next 30 years, which is what BIW currently builds. Furthermore, Trump’s proposed Secretary of Defense, Gen. James Mattis, currently sits on the board of BIW’s parent company, General Dynamics.

2016 also saw the announcement that BIW President Fred Harris will retire at the beginning of 2017. He will be replaced by Vice President Dirk A. Lesko on January 1.

Darcie Moore contributed to this report.

nstrout@timesrecord.com