Officials with the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) said recently that plans to build a new bridge to serve as a major traffic artery in Old Town, north of Bangor, will not begin for at least two more years even as the current 70-year-old span continues to crumble.
The transportation agency was supposed to replace the Llewellyn Estes Memorial Bridge, which carries Stillwater Avenue over the Stillwater River on the town's west side, as part of a multi-year, $20 million project.
But MaineDOT rejected all bids for the work in April after they came in at around double the budgeted amount, the Bangor Daily News reported July 19.
Nearly three months later, MaineDOT told the newspaper that it will take an "innovative" approach to get the work done while keeping costs down.
Initially, the effort to replace the bridge — which includes two spans — was to be bundled with work that would have made improvements to the accident-prone Bennoch Road and College Avenue intersections with Stillwater Avenue. Together, the two projects were estimated to cost $20 million, but the lowest bid that came in was nearly double that at $39.2 million.
The higher bids came amid a time of inflated costs for construction materials and labor that have added to the costs of several other Maine projects, the Daily News noted. To save money, MaineDOT now plans to separate the bridge project from the intersection work and will issue a new request for bids on the latter.
"During the planning phase of this project, we could not have predicted many of the current cost drivers, such as the high cost of steel components as well as material and labor availability risks over a more than-four-year-long construction period," Maine Transportation Commissioner Bruce Van Note said in a statement.
"As such, we decided to reject all bids on the project. We don't like to do this but proceeding with the original plan no longer represented the best value for the people of Maine."
Less Costly Composite Bridge Envisioned
While the department aims to stick to the original designs for the work on the Bennoch Road and College Avenue intersections, along with work on I-95, the Estes Memorial Bridge work will see an innovative approach to its construction, MaineDOT spokesperson Paul Merrill told the Daily News.
"Although the cost of bridges presents a formidable challenge, it also presents an opportunity to showcase the innovation and advances being made in composite bridge construction, especially those being led by the University of Maine [UM]," he said.
As an example of a similar bridge build envisioned in Old Town, Merrill cited a span that carries U.S. Highway 1A over Souadabscook Stream in Hampden that opened in late 2020. That structure was the first of its kind to make use of a composite girder system developed by researchers at UM in partnership with Brewer, Maine's AIT Bridges, a division of Advanced Infrastructure Technologies.
MaineDOT currently expects the construction phase for the Old Town span, using the new composite materials process, to begin in 2024.
MaineDOT to Keep Watchful Eye On Bridge
In the meantime, though, the Estes Memorial Bridge, originally built in 1952, continues to deteriorate, particularly the northern span.
A May 17 inspection of the bridge revealed that water was leaking through the span's deck and that it had lost a large section of concrete, Merrill said. The inspection also discovered that the deck rating of the structure had gone from "poor" to "serious" condition. Its superstructure and substructure also are in poor condition, he explained.
MaineDOT engineers will monitor the span as it continues to degrade, Merrill said. Additionally, the agency has lowered the maximum weight of vehicles that can travel over this section of the bridge.
Beginning July 25, vehicles that weigh 30 tons or more will no longer be able to cross the bridge's northern span and must use a detour. The new limit will likely prohibit vehicles such as loaded logging trucks and concrete trucks. Merrill did tell the Bangor news source that the bridge posting will not affect fire engines, school buses, oil delivery trucks and most local delivery vehicles.
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